


No Questions Asked

by LirilaiNatural



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Christmas, Comfort, Domestic destiel, F/M, Friendship, Housemates, M/M, Motel AU, domestic AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 05:03:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3162254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LirilaiNatural/pseuds/LirilaiNatural
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean runs a no-tell motel and Cas suddenly becomes a frequent visitor.</p>
<p>This was meant to be about a 5K silly drabble then it took over my life and became 23K. Sorry not sorry.</p>
<p>(I'm a little bit sorry)</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Questions Asked

Castiel pulled up outside the motel and put his car into park. He dropped his head back against the headrest and sighed through his nose at the roof of his car, playing the scene he'd returned home to over and over in his mind as if it was some kind of dream.

The problem was, he knew it wasn't. His bloodied knuckles reminded him of that. 

Castiel closed his eyes and tightened the grip on his steering wheel, gritting his teeth and swallowing around the lump in his throat. 

Taking a couple more breaths to steady himself he opened his eyes again and relaxed his grip on the steering wheel. He scrubbed one hand down his face and lifted his head back up. 

After a few more minutes of staring at the dashboard of his car he finally turned it off and dropped his hand back into his lap as the car went dark and silent. 

It took him a while longer to actually get out of the car. 

Dean watched all this happen with a growing frown, the guy had been loitering outside for about ten minutes before he actually got out of the car and pulled a backpack out of his trunk. Dean watched him lean on the back of the car after closing it up again for a couple more minutes before he moved to the front door and made the bell jingle with a tinny echo. 

The guy kept his eyes lowered until he got half way to the desk, then he glanced up and his eyes met Dean's. 

Dean's heart stopped. 

They were the bluest things he'd ever seen in his life, and so guarded, Dean always felt proud of the fact that he could read other people easily, but this guy? His face gave almost nothing away. Almost. There was a crushing sense of sadness behind those blue eyes. 

It was a thing that Dean had seen on a few people for a few different reasons, and this being a no-tell motel... Well. Figure that out for yourself. 

The guy finally reached the counter and quietly asked for a double room, Deans eyes widened slightly at the sound of his voice, it sounded like the guy had been gargling gravel, but nodded and got a key from behind him after pushing the papers towards the guy to sign. 

"How many nights?" Dean asked noting the bloodied knuckles on one hand and clearing his throat while taking the piece of paper back. 

"Just... Just one. I think," the guy shrugged dejectedly and Dean glanced at the name on the card. 

"Well, Mr Novak, just throw your pin in there and then your room is 105, just outside and to the left." 

"Thank you," Castiel said as he punched in his pin and glanced around the desk, "I would use your name but it isn't displayed." 

"Dean," Dean grinned and Cas nodded. 

"Thank you, Dean." he responded when Dean handed him back the card and the key, Dean waved as he turned to leave and got nothing else in return. 

"You're welcome," Dean mumbled as the door closed behind Castiel. 

Dean shook his head and filed the paperwork under the counter, poor guy looked like he was very new. 

\------ 

A few hours later Dean glanced out of the window and watched a pretty red-headed girl walk up to the door of Castiel's room and knock, he saw Cas open the door and usher her inside quickly then look around the parking lot. 

Dean unconsciously shrunk back in his seat even though he knew that the guy probably didn't see him, but the fact he'd looked around made Dean feel like he should pretend to not see anything. 

\------ 

"Hello, Anna," Castiel said as he let her into the room. 

"Cas," Anna breathed, "Daphne, I'm... I'm so sorry. I can't believe she'd do that to you. I thought she was completely in love with you." 

Cas sighed and sat down in the bed heavily, he dropped his face into his hands and gave a hollow laugh, "so did I. So did I." 

Anna carefully sat next to him and put her arms around him, resting her forehead on the back of his head. 

"What are you going to do?" 

"Probably move around to different places," Cas dropped his hands from his face but kept his head bowed, "I don't want her finding me. I have no interest in whatever excuses she has this time." 

Anna squeezed Castiel tighter and sighed as he moved one hand to grip her arm gently. She knew Castiel wouldn't cry, not with her there at least, but the fact that he was shaking slightly in her embrace made it all too obvious how this had affected him. 

There was no reason why it shouldn't, Cas had been in love with Daphne from the moment he saw her and Daphne apparently just didn't feel the same way. 

"I just don't understand why she agreed to marry me if she wasn't happy with me," Cas whispered, his hand tightening around Anna's arm as her arms tightened around his body. "Castiel, I'm so sorry for ever introducing you two. I'm sorry for encouraging you. I'm sorry I wasn't more stubborn when you decided to give her another chance last time. I'm just so, so sorry." Anna felt her throat close slightly and took a deep breath, it wasn't her place to cry. 

"You were just being a supportive sibling, it's not like you told me to not be stupid and just get over it. You reminded me to make sure there were agreements and it didn't all go back to how it was. I just worry that I put too many on her." 

"Cas, no, don't say that," Anna lifted her head and used one hand to turn her brother's head towards her, "if she can't agree to a simple rule of 'no cheating' then there's nothing you should blame yourself for. Ever." 

"It wasn't just that, though. If it was then I'd be more angry at her not myself." 

Anna sighed as she kissed Castiel's forehead gently and decided to keep that argument for another day, she didn't want to fight with Cas right now. 

They sat in silence for a couple of hours after that, neither of them knowing what to say but knowing that words wouldn't help anyway. Anna finally stood to leave so she could get home before she had to go to bed for work the next day, she kissed the top of Castiel's head and promised to call on her lunch to see how he was. Cas just nodded mutely. 

When she got to the door and reached for the handle Cas called her name, "please don't tell Daphne where I am this time," he murmured, Anna felt her throat close again and she nodded, letting out a strangled 'okay' before she opened the door and left Cas alone. 

\------ 

A couple of days later Dean looked up at the bell on the door and saw the same guy there again, he smiled gently at the tired look on the guy's face and asked what kind of room he'd prefer. 

"Same as last time, if possible?" 

"Sure it is," Dean said, putting the form and a pen on the counter for the guy to fill in, "they don't get used that often believe it or not." 

The guy gave Dean a strange look before filling in the form and handing it back, then cringing at Dean's 'thank you Mr. Novak' 

"Please, Dean, Castiel. Not Mr. Novak." 

"Okay then Castiel," Dean grinned as the man nodded his head in thanks, "107 this time, here you go," Dean passed over the key for the room after Cas had put his pin into the machine again and watched as he pocketed his card. 

"Thank you, see you." 

Dean waved as Cas left the office and went into the room. 

A couple of hours later a guy walked up to the door and was let in by Cas. 

\------ 

"Hello, Dean," 

"Hey, Cas. I should get you gift cards," Dean grinned as he stood up and dug the form out from the desk to pass to Cas on top of the counter. 

Castiel smiled slightly and shrugged, "what can I say, good customer service is appreciated." 

"Damn right it is, and I'm happy to provide it," Dean's grin widened as Cas huffed out a small laugh and filled the form in more quickly than the last couple of times, almost like he was used to it. 

Which he probably was. 

"I'm sure gift cards for motels are a strange thing to be given as a present." 

"There've been weirder things I'm sure." Dean grinned as he coaxed the small smile onto Cas' face again, "but I think a gift card for a motel means 'you deserve a break' so is quite a nice idea. I might think about those for Christmas if my business keeps up!" 

Castiel let out a stronger laugh than the first huff and shook his head, "you do that, Dean." 

Dean grinned and passed Cas his card and key to the room and waved as Castiel left the office, this time Cas waved back. 

As usual, a couple of hours after he'd signed in someone was walking up to Castiel's door and knocking. A guy again this time, but a different one to the last time that Cas rented a room. 

Dean tried to not jump to conclusions 

\------ 

"I dunno, Dean, just 'cos he's renting a room for one night every few days doesn't mean he's a hooker." 

"Sammy he had a girl visit him, stay for a couple of hours then leave looking slightly hurt. Same with a couple of guys. It ain't just the single-night-room thing." 

Dean heard Sam sigh down the phone and he could picture his brother pinching the bridge of his nose, Dean smiled beside himself as he stirred the pot on the stove and huffed at Sam's sigh. 

"Dean, what if the guy just moves around for work? Or maybe he's in the process of moving and can't settle." 

"Or maybe he's on the run from someone," Dean grinned at Sam's amused huff of his name, "no seriously, Sammy, what if this guy's on the run so he stops off in a different place every night to keep away from the cops." 

"Well, Dean, maybe you should just ask him." 

Dean spluttered on the taste of sauce he'd just sampled, "yeah 'cos that'll go down well. 'Hey, man, are you on the run from the cops or something'?" 

"That sounds like it could be an interesting conversation starter." 

"Shut up, bitch." 

"Jerk," Dean could hear the smile on Sam's face now, "I dunno what to tell you, man, the guy will have his own reasons for renting a different room every night." 

"That's lawyer speak for 'don't be a judgemental ass' isn't it?" 

"A little, yeah," Sam snorted, "Dean I've gotta go, Jess just finished dinner and she's waving a wooden spoon at me threateningly, I fear for my life." 

Dean laughed as he heard Jess shout 'you'd better, Sam Winchester! Give Dean my love' and said goodnight to his brother. He piled his own food onto a plate and sat down to eat it, shovelling it into his mouth while keeping an ear out for the bell by the front desk going at the same time. 

When he was nearly done he heard the dreaded sound and groaned lightly around the mouthful of pasta he'd just scooped up and swallowed it quickly, walking to the front desk while quickly scrubbing his mouth with a paper towel. 

The blue-eyed guy was standing there again. This was the fifth time in about three weeks that the guy had shown up at the front desk and Dean was really wondering what reasons the guy had. 

Aside from the fact that he had visitors for a couple of hours each time he visited. And only one visitor for those two hours. And they were both male and females that walked through his door. 

Dean always had a war of whether to ask the guy whether he was working or not when he walked through the door. 

"Same as usual, Cas?" Dean grinned as the other man sighed but smiled faintly. 

"Hello, Dean. Yes please." 

Dean handed over the familiar forms and Castiel signed them quickly, giving Dean a strange look as he took the forms from him. Dean rubbed at his face self-consciously, thinking he'd missed a bit of sauce but couldn't find any around his mouth. 

"It's on your nose," Castiel said without looking up from the form and Dean jumped. He used his phone to see whether Cas was being truthful and realised with a light blush that he was. 

"Thanks, Cas." Dean said after wiping the sauce away, "sometimes I think I should really just stick to sandwiches." 

"Then you'd just end up with crumbs everywhere instead of sauce, I can't see it helping much." 

"Was... Was that a joke?" Dean pretended to clutch at his chest, the last couple of times he'd come in Castiel seemed more relaxed, as if he was getting more used to his situation, and Dean was able to coax a smile out of him on a couple of occasions. 

The tell-tale lip twitch gave away that Dean was right and Dean laughed while throwing Cas his key. 

"Any visitors tonight?" Dean asked without thinking, and when Castiel's head snapped up and his eyes narrowed Dean held up his hands in an apology, "just wondered if I needed to bring over any extra shower things or anything," he finished lamely, he saw Cas relax slightly. 

"No, not tonight I don't think. If that changes I will let you know." 

"Um... Okay?" Dean said as Cas turned and walked out of the office room, Dean stood there staring dumbly at the door before he shook himself and moved back to his kitchen to finish off his pasta. 

\------ 

The phone on the desk rang suddenly, Dean nearly threw his cell across the room and cursed loudly when he saw he'd died on the game he was playing. 

Dean answered the phone in a slightly sulky voice and there was a brief pause before Castiel's voice came from the other end, "Dean? I, uh, wondered if you knew the shower in this room is broken?" 

"It is?" Dean frowned and tucked the phone under his ear as he looked through the logs for who'd had that room last, "sorry Cas, the last woman didn't report it as being broken so I had no idea. Be over in sec to see if I can fix it and if not I'll swap your room." 

"Okay, thank you." 

Dean heard the phone click and sighed at the receiver in his hand before grabbing a toolbox from under the counter and turning the sign on the door to 'back in ten minutes' and locking it behind him. 

In a few seconds he was knocking on the door to the room that Castiel was renting and running through what to check in the shower before Cas opened the door and Dean's train of thought was abruptly derailed due to Cas standing there topless with wet hair. 

"I, uh, got in and it went icy. I think I may have disturbed those next door with the yelp that escaped." Cas said while rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. 

Dean realised he'd been gaping for a couple of minutes. 

"Oh, uh, right," Dean laughed slightly, "yeah cold water'll do that to yah, how long did you try to make it work?" 

"About ten minutes, turned it off and on, played with the dial, nothing worked, then water just stopped flowing completely." 

"Huh..." Dean said while chewing on his lip and walking past Cas to get into the bathroom. He set his tools down and looked at the shower with a frown, "this is where I start tinkering and it just sprays me with ice cold water isn't it?" 

He heard Castiel snort from the doorway and grinned at him over his shoulder. Dean crouched down and turned the water off in the bathroom before removing his shoes and socks and climbing into the bath tub under the shower head. 

"So, what do you do for a living?" Dean kicked himself as soon as the question left his mouth, normally that wasn't such a loaded question but with what Castiel seemed to- 

"I'm an accountant." 

Huh. 

"Oh, that... Uh..." 

"Isn't what you were expecting?" Dean glanced up and saw the amused smile on Castiel's face, "don't worry, a couple of other motel managers have told me to not go back as they thought I was a hooker." Castiel sighed, "I was half thinking you were going to do the same if one of my friends came to see how I was today, so I told them to not visit today as I needed some time to think things through." 

Dean frowned, "why?" 

"I, uh," Cas chewed on his lip and folded his arms while leaning against the door frame, "well, I'm in the process of divorcing my wife." 

"Jesus. I'm just gonna stop asking questions." 

Castiel actually laughed, "it's alright, Dean, it's not like it's a big secret." 

"Well if that's the case I might as well ask why then," Dean grinned and finished taking the shower panel apart to get inside it. 

Castiel shrugged, "she cheated on me. Twice. I'd given her another chance because she professed her 'undying love' for me and said it was a 'drunken mistake'." Dean tried to not laugh at the air quotes, this was a serious topic, "then the night I showed up here first time... I'd found her in bed with the same guy, it turns out that the first time I'd caught her wasn't the first 'drunken mistake' the two had had. Or the last." 

Dean whistled slightly between his teeth, "jesus, Cas. I'm sorry man." 

Castiel shrugged and left Dean alone in the bathroom as he tinkered with the shower head, returning a few minutes later and offering Dean a beer as he put the shower back together. 

"I won't accept until I find out if it's working, I ain't gonna drink your beer unless I know I've done something right," Dean grinned as he climbed out of the bath and turned the water back on. 

Castiel reached around him and turned the shower on, water gushing from the shower head in a steady stream and he hummed happily as he held his hand under the water that was starting to steam slightly. 

"Well you deserve the beer, thank you, Dean." Cas smiled at him over his shoulder and Dean blushed slightly, busying himself with tidying up his tool kit and making sure he'd not left anything behind. 

"Don't sweat it, Cas. You know, you can stay for more than one night if you want to, I'm not gonna kick you out. And jesus man if you want friends or family over just go ahead, I don't mind." 

Cas offered Dean the beer again and Dean took it this time, taking a long swig before Cas replied. 

"It's alright, thank you. Like I said I need some time to myself to be able to organise what's going on in here," he tapped his temple, "and I don't really want Daphne finding me. If I move around she hasn't really got much choice of searching me out or speaking to me till I go to her. I changed my number the day after I found her and the other guy because she rang me about twenty times that first night. Messaged me too. With increasing levels of hysteria in her voicemails when I'd just turned my phone off. I only turned it on when I knew she was in work. I don't know why I listened to them all but I did. Then deleted them and got a new number. Very few people have it so she can't get it from them." 

Dean rocked on the balls of his feet and noticed Castiel had turned the shower off towards the start of his venting, he nodded his agreement to Cas' logic and clapped a hand on his shoulder, his palm coming away slightly tingly at the contact of skin on skin. 

"Well, I can't say I blame you, man, I've never been married so I've no idea how much it must suck, but I have been cheated on. It was enough to make me swear off anything to do with relationships for years. And anything else stopped along with it to be honest." 

Castiel frowned, "how long has it been, Dean?" his eyes widened rather comically and Dean laughed slightly, "oh my god, I'm sorry, that was incredibly invasive. I'm sorry." 

"It's fine," Dean huffed, "I don't even know how long it's been, years really. I just can't be bothered with it all, you know? I don't even think I miss it any more." 

"I kinda do." Dean frowned and Cas averted his eyes and sighed, "me and Daphne haven't... Really been a couple since about a year and a half ago; before I first caught her cheating on me." He gave a hollow laugh and scrubbed his hand over his face, "it's probably why she continued to cheat on me." 

"Hey, woah," Dean's frown deepened, "that is NOT a reason for her to keep doing that to you, Cas. If anything that's more reason to NOT to do that. Don't blame yourself 'cos she can't control herself." 

Cas smiled slightly, "thank you Dean." He looked around and sighed, "I feel I've taken up more of your time than I should have, I'm sorry, thank you for fixing the shower. And for listening." 

"Hey, any time, Cas." Dean smiled and patted Castiel's shoulder again, selfishly wanting to feel the tingle on his skin again, "if you need an ear feel free to come and get me, okay? I might not be much but I'm a good listener." 

Cas smiled sadly at him, "Dean, I think you give yourself too little credit." 

Dean blushed slightly and mumbled a disagreement as he bent down to get his tool kit and awkwardly left Cas to finally shower. 

And if the thought of Castiel naked and under the hot water made the blush creep further down his neck... No one had to know. 

\------ 

"You'd really not done anything for over a year and a half?" 

Castiel sighed but smiled at Dean, "no, Dean. Maybe a bit longer than that, I was going through some awkwardness at work where the new boss was riding my ass for something he deemed to be my fault when it wasn't, so I was chalking up weeks of overtime. I'd caught Daphne the first day I told him where to stow his crap and walked out, filed a formal complaint then went home figuring it was about time I sacrificed my job for my marriage. I don't know whether I'm sorry or glad that I did." 

"Well you managed to get a lot of dirty laundry out in the open that's for sure," Dean took a swig of his beer and slid the bowl of chips towards Cas who snorted and took a few, crunching them with an almost focussed violence. 

Castiel had taken to sitting with Dean in his kitchen for a few hours a night when he stopped at the motel now, his plan to keep moving till after the divorce was fully settled was working well because he chose which motels to go to and didn't stick to a schedule, though after a stint of a week where Dean didn't see him and got worried Castiel promised to let Dean know he was alright after that. 

He'd not missed a night since then. 

And Dean hadn't thought about how his voice would sound rasping obscenities over the phone. Nope. He hadn't imagined having phone sex with one of his guests. 

Even less than he'd imagined having actual physical sex with him. 

Damnit. 

"I guess, really I should have ended the marriage when I found her first time. But there were three empty bottles of wine and used shot glasses and I stupidly believed her 'we just got drunk and it happened woops' story and let her stay in my life. I don't know why I did that." 

"Because you're a sap?" Dean grinned as Cas flicked a chip at him, "no really Cas, you're a good guy, I can't blame you for wanting to give her a second chance. She was the love of your life, I get that." 

Cas sighed and downed the rest of his beer, standing to put the bottle in the bin and grab another, he put one on the table in front of Dean and sat down heavily opposite him, not meeting his eye as he normally did and instead fiddling with the beer, "would you judge me if I said I don't think she was?" Dean frowned around the lip of his bottle, "I mean, I feel closer to you now than I ever did her. I just think she paid me attention and I liked it because it made her feel good to think that she was married to a guy who earned a lot of money but she never really cared for me." 

Dean lowered the beer from his mouth, "wow, no I'm not gonna judge you, but I'm gonna judge her 'cos that is a dick move." Cas snorted but granted Dean a slightly watery smile, as he glanced back up to his face, "fuck, Cas, I'm not good with things like this, but you're rid of her now. You can find someone who actually gives a damn about you, where you are and how you're doing. Someone who deserves you 'cos she sure as hell doesn't." 

Castiel carried on playing with the label on his beer, "so you wouldn't judge me if I said I'd thought about doing the same thing to her? I never did. But I wanted to hurt her like she'd hurt me. Even though it probably wouldn't have hurt her and she would have divorced me on the spot and run me for everything I was worth." 

"Hell no I don't judge you," Dean almost slammed his beer onto the table and Castiel flinched, "sorry," Dean rubbed the back of his head, "but no, I don't judge you for that either. I wanted to do that too when I found out. I was talked out of it by my brother and he convinced me to just end it and leave it at that 'cos he knew I'd not be able to be happy after that." 

Castiel smiled again, "it seems our siblings know us both too well. My sister knew I wouldn't be able to let it rest if I didn't try as hard as I could to fix it. So she stood by me while I did and was the first one to see me when it all went to hell again." the smile slipped from Cas' face, "I've not told anyone else but," Cas sighed, "I don't think I was ever truly happy with Daphne. It was circumstance that threw us together and I realise now that it was all a bit rushed." 

"Here's to crappy hindsight," Dean said, raising his new beer after twisting the top off, Cas snorted but clinked the neck of his against it with a smile, both of them taking a long pull and then putting the bottles back on the table in synch. 

"Thank you for being a good friend, Dean. I didn't expect to find one as good as you, forget in a time like this." 

"My pleasure, Cas," Dean smiled, "call me a sob but I'm a sucker for guys with broken hearts," Dean's eyes widened, "I mean... Uh, I like making people feel good, wait that doesn't... I mean..." 

Castiel watched Dean flounder for something to say for a few seconds then burst into laughter. Completely uncontrollable, stomach hardening, tear inducing laughter. Dean sat in stunned silence for a few moments before starting to laugh at his own expense. 

When the two of them had wiped the tears from their eyes and taken a few gulps of air Cas managed to gasp out a reply. 

"It's alright, Dean, I understand what you mean, just you phrased that in such a bad way." 

"Shut up, asshat," Dean snorted and flicked a chip at Cas like he'd done earlier, Cas wafted it away and laughed again before glancing at the clock and wincing. 

"I have to be up early tomorrow to finalise the agreements that me and Daphne are making. I should really get to bed. Thank you for dinner. And the beer. And for someone to talk to." 

"Any time, man," Dean smiled and watched as Cas just stared at him for a few minutes before seeming to shake himself and stand up, Castiel stretched and the tee he was wearing rode up a little and exposed his hipbones, Dean coughed slightly and took a drink of his beer to stop himself from staring and when he looked back Castiel was giving him a soft smile. 

"Goodnight, Dean." 

"Yeah, uh, night Cas." Dean waved as Cas moved out through the front of the motel reception and waved back. 

Dean decided he was well and truly screwed. 

\------ 

"How'd it go?" 

"Not that well, Daphne was crying and begging me to give her another chance, I was looked at like I was the scum of the earth because I mostly ignored her." 

"Jesus, do they know SHE cheated on YOU?" 

"They did at the end of it. They ran through the list of who got what first then advised that as she cheated on me I was being nice by letting her keep the house even though I was gonna just remove all my stuff from it. Most of it was already in a storage lot by the first week anyway." 

"Did that change their minds?" 

"Not really." Dean head Cas' sigh down the phone and pictured him slumped against the wall on his cell with a frown on his face. 

"Well, at least it's all over. Where are you staying tonight?" 

"Don't wanna say in case she's around somewhere," Dean pictured Cas scowling around and snorted, Cas' voice was more amused when he finished speaking, "but I'll let you know when I'm there and tucked in. Thank you for being there, Dean." 

"I say this every time and I'll keep saying it, any time, man." 

\------ 

"Daphne came in to my workplace this afternoon." 

"What? Seriously?" 

"No I'm lying to create more drama because my life has been rather dull lately," Cas' amused tone gave Dean the image of a half-hidden smile. 

Dean laughed, "wow I'm glad you pointed that out, hardass." Castiel actually laughed, "what did she want?" 

"She wanted me to take the house, she said she couldn't live there knowing how much she'd done to hurt me. I told her if she was that bothered to sell it and send me half the takings but I wasn't gonna set foot back in there. It was a gift from her parents in the first place so I have no ties to it any more." 

Dean whistled, "a gift from her folks? Wow. So when you said she wanted to marry someone who earned a lot..." 

"It runs in the family, yes." 

The two of them were silent for a few minutes, the clock ticking in the background of Dean's kitchen counting away the last seconds before he'd have to start making dinner. 

"You know, you could settle down now, get yourself a place and just ignore her for the rest of forever. No one could blame you." 

"I know, but I don't know, I don't think I could settle in one place for too long on my own. I was used to her being about even if we weren't being intimate." 

"There's more than one intimacy, Cas," Dean cringed at himself as Castiel laughed, the sound made Dean smile, "I mean, sharing a space is as intimate as it gets even if you're not doing the dirty between the sheets." 

"That is true," Dean could hear the smile still on Cas' face, "you're a lot more clever than you give yourself credit for, Dean." 

"Yeah, yeah, it's the influence of my Gandhi-loving little brother." Dean felt himself swell with pride even as he tried to joke off Cas' compliment. 

"Well, whoever's influence it was, you're still clever. I'll see you in a couple of days, keep a room spare for me?" 

"For you, Cas, anything." 

"Even gold-plated bedknobs?" 

"Okay maybe not that far..." 

Castiel laughed, "see you soon, Dean." 

"Yeah... Bye Cas." 

\------ 

Castiel wandered through the doors to the office holding a bag of food, Dean's mouth watered slightly at the smell and he glanced up with surprise at the time. 

"I come bearing crappy take-away and beer, tell me how much you've missed me." 

Dean laughed, "Cas, crappy take-away and beer are always good in my book!" Dean moved the door on the counter out of the way so Cas could go through and set up in Dean's kitchen, Dean followed and got out two plates so Cas could pile food onto them. 

"Well, I figured since you cooked last time it was only fair I brought something, though I can't really cook so this is as close to me providing food as you'll ever get." 

"Dude, you can't cook?" Dean blinked and stared at Castiel in shock. 

"Well, beyond the basics, no. I can feed myself to a good enough standard but when it comes to 'thank you' meals I'm hopeless. However I can bake so that makes up for it." 

"You can't tease a man with that bit of knowledge Cas," Dean groaned, "baked goods are the best goods." 

"I'll remember that for next time," Cas grinned as Dean started eating quickly while keeping one eye out front. 

It didn't take long for the food and beers to be mostly gone. 

"I haven't even checked in yet..." Cas suddenly sat up and glanced at the clock, Dean jumped at the sudden movement and noted it was getting late and he should probably change the sign over in about half an hour to be the emergency number for out of hours guests. 

"Eh, don't sweat it, Cas, I've had people roll in at half three in the morning, for you I don't mind staying up a bit later." 

"I hate to be a bother though," Castiel relaxed slightly into the chair with a soft smile, "I don't want to take your friendship for granted." 

Dean waved a hand and laughed, "Cas, you're welcome to. My social circle ain't exactly heaving with this job, so you can take advantage of my time whenever you want to." 

"Thank you, Dean," Castiel's smile warmed at Dean's words, and Dean felt himself blush slightly and rubbed the back of his neck. 

"Speaking of, uh, I have a spare room here, if you want it." 

Castiel frowned, "well I did ask you save me one..." 

"No, I, uh," Dean coughed, "this place," he waved his hand around his kitchen and towards the rest of his house, "it's a three bed place, one still has Sammy's name on it for when he and Jess visit, and there's a little box room which is normally Mary's, but there's a third full sized one which has basically been a guest room since before I took over the motel from my dad. And you said you couldn't handle living on your own, well if you're okay with sharing with me then you're welcome to it." 

Dean grew more uncomfortable as Castiel just stared at him, when he was about to make a joke about it probably being weird now he'd voiced it and for Cas to forget about it Castiel finally spoke. 

"Thank you, Dean. I would love to take it, but you'll have to let me help out around here. They've cut my hours back at my other job because of the stress that this thing with Daphne has caused me but I can still easily get by, so I'd be happy to apply my spare time to helping you out." 

"Nah, man, I can't ask you to do that." 

"You're not, I'm offering." 

"Oh... Uh... Good point." 

"It's settled then, on my time off I'll help out here however I can," Castiel smiled at Dean and Dean couldn't help but smile back. 

\------ 

"Wow, Dean, the place almost looks clean!" 

Dean laughed as he shoved Sam further down the corridor to be able to hug Jess and give her a kiss on the cheek, Jess laughed and squeezed him tightly before glancing around herself. 

It was true, Dean just didn't like to admit it. The few months that Cas had lived there made a massive difference to Dean's ability to keep his living space clear. 

Not that that would matter with the avalanche of movement that suddenly hit Dean's legs and clung to them, screaming "Uncle Dean!" as loud as her lungs could manage. And for a five year old that was impressively loud. 

"Hey squirt!" Dean said brightly, putting his hands under his niece's armpits and swinging her into the air, making her let out an excited shriek of laughter, "how've you been? Excited for Santa?" 

"Yes!" Mary bobbed her head so fast Dean actually worried that it'd fall off and reached out to put her hands on his jaw, "mummy says I've been reaaaaaaaaaally good this year so can expect lots of presents!" 

"Well, that's good 'cos if you weren't on the nice list then Uncle Dean might have to go have words with Santa." 

Mary's eyes widened slightly and she gaped, "you know Santa?" 

"Of course I know Santa!" Dean pretended to be offended and Jess hit Sam gently on the arm for laughing, "what do you think Uncles do? Sit around gathering dust? Just 'cos I don't have kids doesn't mean I can't look out for you." 

Mary sat in stunned silence in Dean's arms and suddenly threw her arms around his neck laughing, Dean winked at Sam and Jess while he patted Mary's hair. Mary squirmed her way to the floor and ran into the living room to look at the tree Dean had got, he hadn't finished decorating yet because Sam, Jess and Mary had got there early but he didn't mind, it was more fun to decorate as a group anyway. Plus most of the time he got away with not doing much. 

"So, this Castiel guy, do we get to meet him?" Jess said with a sly grin. 

Sam laughed as Dean sighed and glanced around for Mary before flipping her the birdie, Jess pretended to be offended by clutching at her chest but laughed as Sam jabbed her in the side. 

"I'm sure he'll be about, Jess, he lives here after all." 

Just as Sam finished speaking Mary flew back from the living room and grabbed at Mary's hand, "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. Uncle Dean hasn't finished decorating, quick lets do it before he realises!" 

Jess laughed as she was dragged away by her daughter and Dean moved closer to the kitchen and signalled for Sam to follow to get a drink. 

The two brothers knew to stay out of the way when the girls started with the decorations. 

\------ 

A few hours later Castiel almost fell through the door as he tripped over the shoes left in the hallway by Mary, he frowned at them and moved them to the side before he heard the shrieking laughter of the five year old move from the kitchen into the hallway in front of him, closely followed by Dean's shout of "COME BACK HERE YOU MENACE!" and the sound of something squeaking and two other voices laughing. 

Castiel watched the blur of a child run into the living room then her head appear out of the doorway to stare at him as Dean came out of the kitchen holding what appeared to be a sock puppet that he moved the mouth of to make squeak and the child shrieked again and disappeared back into the living room. 

"Hey Cas!" Dean laughed with a wave, "I'll do introductions in a minute, lemme just grab the monkey!" 

Cas nodded, slightly bemused as Dean ran into the living room and a shriek of laughter erupted again before he walked out carrying a squirming, laughing five-year-old over his shoulder. 

"Well, welcome home!" Dean turned around so Mary could look up and wave, still giggling, "and Sam and Jess are in the kitchen, come on, I'll introduce you properly." 

Castiel slowly followed after Dean and Mary and hovered in the doorway while Dean half dropped Mary onto Sam's lap, who proceeded to tickle her and blow raspberries on her stomach, making her shriek more and squirm more than Castiel had ever seen anything squirm in his life. 

Mary soon escaped and ran past him and hid behind his legs, her giggles shaking his coat as she clung to and peered out from behind it. 

"Castiel, meet my kid brother, Sam," Sam waved with a grin, "and his too-good-for-him wife, Jess," Jess laughed and called out a 'hi' with another wave, "and that little bundle of mischief hiding behind you is their gorgeous baby girl, Mary." 

"Hi!" Mary said brightly, grinning up at Castiel who couldn't help but smile back. 

"It's nice to meet you all, I thought you weren't due for another couple of days so I'm sorry I wasn't expecting madness when I got through the door." 

"Hey, it's our fault for being early," Sam grinned as Mary moved out from behind Cas and held her arms up to him, Cas glanced at Jess who shrugged with a smile before picking her up and throwing her into the air slightly earning him another shriek of laughter, "but Mary couldn't wait to come see Uncle Dean, so the princess gets her wish. At Christmas at least." 

"And on my birthday! Uncle Dean takes me to the fair on my birthday, and we get cotton candy, and he aaaaaaaaaaaaaaalways wins me a teddy bear!" 

"Really? Wow, every year?" Mary nodded enthusiastically and Castiel laughed as she started telling him about all the rides they went on in an excited voice, waving her hands about to show how big they were or how they moved, Cas gasping and laughing in exactly the right places. 

Dean leant against the counter and smiled at the image of Mary and Cas, Sam joined him after getting out a beer for both of them and nudged his elbow with a grin and raised eyebrows, Dean stuck his tongue out at Sam and turned back to watch Mary talk about what they were gonna do over Christmas with a blush. 

"Aaaaaaaaand then we'll sing around the piano, even though it's not really a piano, but we pretend it is 'cos we're reeeeeeeeeeealy creative!" 

"Wow, that sounds like it'll be a lot of fun!" Cas laughed and bounced her on his hip slightly. 

Mary nodded again, "ah-huh, it always is! And are you gonna join in?" 

Castiel glanced across to Dean, who nodded with a grin, "sure I am, how could I miss it?" 

Mary cheered and asked to be put down, so Cas pretended to drop her before putting her down properly, earning another shriek, before she ran into the living room to play with the toys that she'd brought with her. 

"Feel special, she likes you," Sam said, shaking Castiel's hand in a proper greeting now the barrel of energy was out of the room. 

"I'd worry what she'd do to me if she didn't," Cas said with a serious face, Sam looked confused but Dean cracked up, making Cas' lips twitch into a smile. 

"Cas, don't be cruel man, Sammy isn't used to your humour, give him chance." 

Jess giggled from the table as she stood up to shake Castiel's hand too, then moved to help Dean finish cooking, leaving Sam and Cas awkwardly stood in the way. 

"Well, I hate to abandon you to the awkward side-place but I'm gonna go get changed, I promise to be quick," Castiel smiled at Sam's laugh and escaped from the kitchen without getting accosted by Mary till he came back downstairs and she ran at him and jumped at his middle. 

Castiel caught her easily and swung her up onto his hip as she giggled and shoved a picture into his face showing the five of them as stick figures around the tree and piles of presents. 

"This is what it's gonna be like on Christmas morning!" 

"That is amazing! We should frame this, In fact, I'm gonna get a frame for it tomorrow!" Mary smiled shyly and let go of the picture before squirming down to the floor and running back to her toys as Cas went into the kitchen and stuck the picture to the fridge with a magnet, realising that the other pictures on there must also be Mary's from previous visits. 

"She drew you a picture? She definitely likes you." Sam said from the table, Cas grinned and got a beer from the fridge and sat down next to him, watching Dean dance around the kitchen with Jess and sing along to the Christmas music on the radio. Badly. 

"You have a lovely daughter, I'm happy that she accepts me," Cas said with a soft smile, he turned away from Dean to see Sam looking at him curiously and blushed slightly before taking another swig of his beer, "so, Sam, what do you do?" 

\------ 

After dinner Cas got roped in to playing dolls with Mary, after the initial madness she'd calmed down (probably because she was stuffed and tired from eating too) and was quietly telling Castiel about her dolls and their histories and how they all knew each other, which Cas tried valiantly to remember but often got told off for getting some mixed up. 

After the third time it happened Castiel looked at Dean helplessly over Mary's head as she told him again that Sophie and Sarah were best friends and Katie was Sophie's sister and Dean laughed behind his hand as he came back into the room from setting up Mary's cot in the box room as Sam threw Cas a sympathetic look. 

"Mary, poor Castiel has only just met them, he's gonna get them wrong a couple of times sweetie," Jess said quietly from her spot curled up beside Sam, Mary looked at her mom and nodded, yawning slightly as she said she'd forgive Castiel if he learned by tomorrow, which Cas promised to do. 

"Alright monkey, hot chocolate time?" 

"Yes please!" Mary jumped up and ran to Dean, who swung her onto his hip easily and she settled her head on his shoulder while one hand gripped the front of his shirt, "can Cas read my story?" 

"Don't you think you should ask him?" Dean said fondly. 

Mary twisted slightly in Dean's grasp so her head was still resting on Dean's shoulder but she could see Castiel, "Castieeeeeeeeel? Will you read me my bedtime story?" 

Cas glanced up from sitting her dolls to one side and smiled at her gently, "of course I will, Mary." 

"Thaaaaank you!" She blew him a kiss which Cas pretended to catch to make her laugh and Dean carried her into the kitchen to make her hot chocolate. 

"You only need to read the first bit, she's normally spark out by the time you get half way through," Jess said quietly as Castiel stood up from the floor and flopped into one of the armchairs with a sigh. 

"Thanks for the heads up," Cas smiled as Sam laughed, "I wouldn't mind though, I have nieces of my own and they don't go to sleep until the final word is read." 

"That explains why you're so good with kids," Sam grinned as Dean carried Mary back into the living room with one arm and her hot chocolate in the other, he deposited her gracefully into Castiel's lap and she held out her hands for her hot chocolate patiently, murmuring a 'thank you' when Dean gave it her. 

She blew on it delicately and held it up to Dean to do the same before taking a sip and smacking her lips happily. 

The next few minutes passed quietly while Mary swung her legs under Castiel's and the adults chatted about what they were going to do the next day, Mary managed to get Dean and Castiel to promise to take her to the park and out for burgers before either of them could blink, Jess and Sam found this hilarious. 

When she'd finished her drink she held her cup to Dean with another 'thank you Uncle Dean!' and Dean took it back to the kitchen, she turned to Castiel and gently poked his arm, "can I have my story now?" 

"Of course, which one do you want? Your mom said she'd brought a few." 

Mary pursed her lips in thought, "the princess and the frog?" 

"Done," Castiel grinned as Jess handed him the book and took Mary to get ready for bed, a few minutes later she appeared at the side of Castiel's chair and tugged on his hand with a yawn, wrapped up in her pajamas and carrying a battered looking teddy. 

Cas stood up as she moved to kiss Sam and Dean goodnight, then took Castiel's hand and lead him to her room where she burrowed herself under her blankets while telling Castiel sleepily that the teddy she had with her was one of the first ones Dean had won for her. 

When she was settled Castiel began to read, and sure enough before he was a quarter of the way through the book she'd fallen fast asleep. Castiel stood up and turned out the main light, leaving her nightlight glowing gently in the corner of the room and the door open slightly before making his way back downstairs to sit with Sam, Jess and Dean. 

\------ 

Castiel leant against a bench and laughed as he watched Dean swing upside down from the monkey bars in the park as Mary ran around underneath him laughing loudly as he roared and pretended to grab at her, there were a few other kids in the park but most of them were building snowmen in the space around the climbing frame. 

Dean caught hold of Mary and triumphantly roared again, earning him a peal of laughter and a few screams. 

"Cas! Cas help! The Dean monster has me!" 

"I'm coming Mary!" Cas pretended to brandish a sword and ran over to the two of them, Dean let go of Mary and cowered away from Cas' invisible sword as Mary hid behind his coat and they backed away slowly. 

"Yeah! Take that monster!" Mary laughed as she danced around Cas' legs. 

Cas watched Dean fold his arms and pretend to sulk, but saw the amusement in Dean's eyes as Mary professed her love for Cas over everything. Castiel bent down and whispered something to Mary, which made Dean look very worried as Mary turned to him with a wicked grin and started to scoop snow into her hands. 

"Nooooooo!" Dean shouted as he bent upwards to get himself down from the monkey bars, but not before he was pelted with several snowballs from Cas and Mary, "I'll get you two for this!" Dean laughed as he scooped up snow and Cas and Mary ran away screaming and laughing to avoid getting hit. 

"Can we build a snowman?" Mary asked brightly as she got her breath back (and Dean had smushed snow into Castiel's hair with a shout of glee). 

"How's about burgers first?" Dean laughed as Cas used Dean's scarf to wipe his hair dry and scowled at him, "food for building and all that!" 

"Oh! Burgers! Yes!" Mary took hold of Dean's offered hand and held her other out for Cas to take, squealing with happiness as they swung her between them every few steps. 

When they'd got sat in a booth Dean excused himself to go to the toilet and asked Cas to order for him, the waitress arrived a few minutes later to take their order and Mary ordered a fanta with no ice to drink while Cas got him and Dean coke, his with ice and Dean's without. 

"Excuse me," Mary said after a few seconds. 

"Yes sweetheart?" 

"I changed my mind, can I please have ice like Cas?" 

The waitress made doe eyes at Mary, "of course you can darling," she smiled up at Castiel, "your daughter is very polite, she's adorable." 

Cas laughed, "as honoured as I would be for Mary to be mine, she's actually my friend's brother's." 

"Well either way, you guys are bringing her up right." 

The waitress wandered away to give their orders to the kitchen and Mary tugged on the sleeve of Castiel's sweater. 

"What does 'be honoured' mean?" 

"It means 'be very glad of'," Cas smiled as Mary tilted her head and nodded in understanding. 

"Oh, well then I'd be honoured if you and Uncle Dean got married so you could be my uncle too!" 

Cas spluttered slightly and blushed as Mary went back to her colouring book, Dean appeared a few minutes later and brightly said hi, ruffling Mary's hair and making her laugh and Cas' blush to deepen. 

Dean gave him a weird look but he just smiled and shook his head, thankful that the waitress arrived with their drinks a few seconds later. 

"Hey, wait, have you abandoned me, Monkey? Ice! What is this!" 

"Cas has ice," Mary stated simply, taking a quick sip through her straw and swapping a crayon for another colour while Cas smiled smugly at Dean and raised his eyebrows in challenge. 

"Oh, I see what this is. Mutiny. Mutiny I tell you!" 

Castiel laughed as Mary asked what mutiny is. 

\------ 

"MOMMY, DADDY, COME LOOK WHAT WE BUILT!" Mary shouted through the house from the side door, carefully keeping her snow-clad wellies out of the way of the inside as she heard Sam and Jess move from the living room and bounded back over to where Dean and Cas stood proudly next to an igloo. 

"Oh my god," Jess gasped as Sam clapped and cheered, "that's amazing!" 

"Cas showed us how to do it! And Uncle Dean is REAAAAAAAAAAAAALY strong! He lifted loads of boxes of snow to make it!" 

Jess ran back inside to get the camera as Mary sat in the entrance to the igloo and grinned happily, Dean and Cas standing on either side of the igloo and smiling with red noses and cheeks, as Jess aimed the camera Dean took Castiel's hand and held them aloft in a victory pose. 

The pink on Cas' cheeks wasn't completely from the cold after that. 

\------ 

"That was quick," Jess said brightly as Cas went back into the living room, "did you two tire her out today?" 

"I think we tired Dean out really," Cas said with a soft smile at the other man, who was sat with his head dropped against the back of the chair. Dean raised one hand and swore at Cas while the others laughed quietly, "did you get all your shopping done?" 

"Mostly, I'm gonna kidnap Dean tomorrow so we can get you something though," Jess said. 

Castiel blushed slightly, "you don't need to do that, Jess." 

"Oh be quiet," Jess threw a pillow at him while Sam scoffed, "you're part of this family whether you like it or not, and Mary adores you so she'd be heartbroken of we didn't get you something." 

"Using your child as blackmail. That's low," Dean grinned and lifted his head, winking at Cas who laughed slightly, "seriously though, Cas, your'e getting presents, man. I already know exactly what I'm gonna get you. Suck it up and accept the love." 

Cas' blush deepened and he was glad for the low lighting in the living room, "looks like I'm outvoted, then. I guess I could use Sam and Jess's help getting something for you, Dean. But then I'll have to steal Dean to get you guys something too." 

"We'll play musical shoppers tomorrow," Sam grinned, "it'll be just like when we were all younger and used to go shopping in a party of about three families." Dean laughed and started to recount tales of those shopping trips, Jess and Cas descending into laughter which they tried to hold in to not wake Mary and ending up with tears leaking from their eyes. 

"Oh, oh stop, it hurts," Jess gasped as she hit Sam's chest gently. 

"I'm with your wife, sorry but, ow," Castiel gasped as he wiped the tears away and laughed into a pillow to try and muffle the noise. 

Dean and Sam had descended into giggles a few stories ago, and agreed through gasps that it was probably best to stop before they all hurt each other. 

"After that I don't think I can cope with musical shopping partners, I'm gonna die laughing when we meet up to swap around," Jess continued to giggle as Dean moved to the kitchen to make them all a drink, she cuddled into Sam's side as Sam sighed and said she'd just have to deal with it with a dopey grin and a squeeze to her shoulders. 

Which Jess hit his chest for again but smiled softly at him. 

Dean poked his head into the living room and smiled at his brother and Jess, then asked Cas to help him with the drinks. Cas groaned but stood quickly to help him. 

"Thanks, man, I just thought I'd let you escape the happy couple, they're sickening," Dean grinned, "you're okay with everything, right?" 

Cas frowned, "how do you mean? Wait... Are you referring to my own failed marriage? Because up until this point I hadn't even thought about it." Cas elbowed Dean slightly out of the way to get to the cupboard and Dean snorted. 

"Seriously, man, no jokes, I'm trying to make sure you're alright here. It's been... What? Four months since you finalised the divorce?" 

"And about two years since I could even class me and Daphne as being in a relationship, Dean." Castiel sighed and turned to look at Dean with a soft smile, "your family is wonderful and I'm glad that you've all accepted me, I'm okay. Honestly. Just the fact that I have a family to share Christmas with is perfect. I can deal with the soul crushing loneliness from not having my non-loving wife here." 

Dean punched Castiel's arm lightly, "alright, alright, you're adjusted I get it, no need to be a dick," he grinned as the kettle boiled and gently moved Cas out of the way by putting his hands on Castiel's hips and sliding Cas to one side, "now let me teach you how to make hot chocolate the Winchester way." 

\------ 

Sam and Cas sat quietly while Mary played in the kid's bit of the mall canteen, each keeping an eye on her while also watching for Dean and Mary to appear. Sam and Cas turned out to be very efficient shoppers and had got presents for the others quickly and easily while Mary offered her thoughts on them (and they both might have got something for Jess and Dean on her suggestion. They're not pushovers, shut up). 

"Y'know, I'm glad you started renting a room at the motel," Sam said suddenly, Cas glanced at him and raised his eyebrows, "Dean doesn't have many good friends, and those he does have he doesn't see all that often. Since you started helping out it's done wonders for him to be able to have some free time. He appreciates it more than he lets on, you know." 

"That's kind of you to say, Sam," Castiel smiled, "Dean has been a very good friend to me through recent events, so helping out and giving him some free time is the least I could do." 

Sam watched Cas looking around the mall canteen and saw him relax suddenly and the smile on his face soften, Sam followed Castiel's line of sight and Saw Jess and Dean waving at them from the other side of the space. 

"Y'know, you could just tell him." Cas jumped and looked at Sam with wide eyes and a blush, stammering slightly before Sam held up his hand with a smile, "hey if you don't feel ready I don't wanna push you, I dunno why you ended up renting a room like you did, and Dean wouldn't tell me unless you said he could, but even then he'd let you tell your own story I think, but I think you two could be good for each other. I've not seen Dean as comfortable around someone like he is with you for a long time. Just... Think about it." 

Cas's expression turned away from panic and into a relaxed smile, he nodded at Sam as Mary saw Jess and Dean and ran to them to say that her Sam and Cas "finished shopping aaaaaaaages ago! Where have you been?!" 

Jess laughed as Dean picked her up and explained they wanted to find the perfect gifts for everyone so Santa could wrap them and get them under the tree in time. Mary accepted this reason with a serious nod. 

"So, musical shoppers?" Sam grinned as Jess bent down to kiss him, making her laugh and hit his shoulder instead before sitting down next to him with Mary between them. Sam pretended to sulk until Jess leant across and gave Sam a quick but loving kiss and Cas heard Dean sigh next to him. 

He watched Dean carefully from the corner of his eye and saw Dean's eyes flick towards him with a small, sad smile before he seemed to shake himself and grinned properly then grabbed one of the menu's, putting it between him and Cas and announcing he was starving. 

After they finished lunch, which Cas insisted on paying for, they split up again, Jess and Sam taking Mary so Dean could help Cas get her a toy that hadn't already been picked. "So, how'd the shopping go?" 

"Well enough, I managed to get you and Jess something, and saw a few things that Mary seemed drawn to, a couple of which Sam said she's wanted for a while, but I've got no clue what to get for Sam so I really hope you can help me." 

"Gladly!" Dean dragged Cas from store to store, and after he'd got Mary's present Cas stopped taking Dean's suggestions seriously when Dean tried to convince him to get Sam a Barbie with the reasoning 'Sam'll find it hilarious!' 

"You're hopeless," Cas laughed and shoved Dean lightly with his shoulder after the third insistence, he walked towards a book store and Dean caught up with him with a laugh, bumping his shoulder into Cas' in retaliation. 

"I never said I was anything but," Cas shook his head but smiled at Dean's grin, "seriously though I'll behave. Though just get him this sticker book please?" Dean held up a My Little Pony book with an over exaggerated puppy pout and Castiel sighed and turned away. 

\------ 

"Dean," Jess said quietly as Mary ran forwards to Sam and Cas, "would you please just tell Castiel that you like him." 

Dean froze for a second then sighed, "you've been with Sammy too long if you can read my mind like that, but come on, the guy's barely out of his issue, he's not gonna want me up in his business." 

Jess hit his arm gently, "shut up, you two are perfect for each other, you both clearly like the other so there's no harm in trying, surely? And if you say you don't wanna fuck it up like everything else I will ACTUALLY punch you." 

"Wow no need for violence," Dean laughed and held his hands up, even though they were weighed down with bags he'd insisted on taking from Jess, "I dunno, I just don't wanna rush him." 

"No time like the present," Jess said as Mary ran back to them and Dean put the bags down to catch her. 

"Your brother gives awful present suggestions." Castiel grumbled to Sam with a fond smile at the brother in question, who was currently swinging Mary between his legs and up into the air while Jess watched with a worried smile and gathered bags off the floor. 

"Let me guess, Barbies and My Little Pony?" 

"That's a little disconcerting..." 

Sam laughed, "it's a running joke, don't worry. Feel special that he wanted to include you in it." 

"I almost wish I'd got you that sticker book now," Cas grinned at Sam's laugh as Jess and Dean made their way back to them and the car, Mary sat on Dean's shoulders and waved at people going the other way. 

"Everyone sorted?" the others counted their bags and announced the affirmative, so Dean unlocked his car and they piled bags into the boot before squishing into the leather interior, Mary seated between Sam and Jess in the back and Cas in the front with Dean. 

Dean turned the radio to a station playing Christmas songs for the drive back and the five of them sung along loudly, Mary drowning them out with the wrong words but enough enthusiasm so no one really minded. 

When they got back to the house the presents were deposited in Castiel's room while Mary was kept busy in the kitchen with Dean and Jess as they started making gingerbread to make a house with it later on. 

They still had a week till Christmas, but Mary wanted to practice. It wasn't because she knew that this way there'd be the chance to eat this house and make another. Of course not. 

Uncle Dean shouldn't be that silly. 

Cas and Sam looked at each other and had to turn away to stop laughing. 

That night everyone went to bed early so they could wrap the presents that had been bought, each room (aside from Mary's) ending up with presents under the bed to keep them out of the way. 

\------ 

The next week was spent in a comfortable routine of getting up, tiring out Mary until Cas got home from work the days he had to go in to the office, and then doing various Christmassy related things in the evening to wind down. 

Dean somehow had enough things to keep Mary interested and also give the adults a break from her excitement as she counted down the days with her advent calendar. 

Of course, the adults all counted down with her using their own. 

When it got to Christmas Eve, Sam and Jess practically had to tie Mary into her cot to make her stay in bed, reminding her that Santa wouldn't come if she didn't go to sleep about four times over the course of the evening when it got closer to her bedtime. 

After she'd finally fallen asleep, Dean, Cas, Sam and Jess flopped on the sofa and chairs, barely able to move after the amount of energy that had been spent chasing Mary around all day. 

"I swear I feel like I won't be able to move for a week," Dean groaned. 

"Try having that all the time," Sam mumbled from behind his arm, which he'd slung over his face when he collapsed on the sofa. 

"She's not that bad," Jess said brightly, "only around Christmas. And her birthday. And Easter. And school holidays..." Cas laughed as Jess trailed off and pulled a face at him. The four of them chatted for a few hours before deciding it was safe to get presents and set them up around the tree, each one creeping to their rooms to get the bags of brightly coloured boxes then leaving them with Jess to arrange under the tree. 

Jess snapped a picture of the finished display when she was satisfied and announced that she was going to get to bed so she could at least get some rest before Mary woke up next morning, the other three agreeing but groaning at having to move. 

\------ 

"CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!" Castiel nearly jumped out of his skin as he heard the shriek from outside of his door, hearing similar ones of "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!", "DAAAAAAAAAAAD!" and "UNCLE DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAN!" follow soon after and willing his heart to slow down so it didn't burst. 

He swung himself out of bed and glanced at the clock, half past five. Oh that was evil. 

With a sigh he stood up and pushed his feet into his slippers, then tugged on a shirt and wrapped his dressing gown around himself before peering out of the door and seeing Mary twitching in her own slippers and dressing gown at the top of the stairs. 

"IT'S CHRISTMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!" She shouted loudly as she saw Cas stick his head out of his room and ran over to him, Cas moved the door in enough time to catch Mary as she flung herself into his arms, "mom and dad said I wasn't allowed to go downstairs this morning without an adult, and you're an adult, can we go downstairs?" 

Cas settled her on his hip as the doors to Dean's and Sam and Jess' rooms opened and the other three adults (looking as bed ridden as he did) emerged with yawns and smiles at Mary babbling away on Cas' hip about what she hoped she'd got from Santa. 

Dean smiled fondly at the mess of Cas' hair and laughed as Castiel shyly ran a hand through it and pulled a face at him as Mary jumped down from his hip and ran over to tug on her parents' hands to get them towards the stairs. 

"COME OOOOOOOOOOOOOON. PRESENTS!" 

"Okay, okay, we're coming, but breakfast first." Jess said firmly but with a smile. 

Mary nodded but pouted, obviously restraining herself from tearing down the stairs ahead of the adults who were closing their bedroom doors and tying dressing gowns more securely as they shuffled down the corridor to the stairs. 

Jess and Sam were dragged ahead by Mary and Dean and Cas hovered behind for a few seconds, Dean glanced at Cas and raised his eyebrow. 

"Think we can get away with sneaking back into bed?" he asked quietly, Cas opened his mouth to reply before Jess shouted at them from half way down the stairs. 

"I swear to everything if you two are thinking of going back to bed I'll send Mary up with snow to shove down your backs!" Sam laughed as Mary shouted again about hurrying up because "PRESENTS!!!" 

Cas sighed, "apparently not," he ran his hand through his hair and tried to tame it a bit more again, Dean gave him a soft smile and ruffled his hair back up with a laugh as Cas swatted at his hand before going towards the stairs and grumbling about Dean being an awful person. 

Dean caught up with him and hugged him from behind briefly, "sorry, Cas, but you know you wouldn't change a thing about me." 

Cas froze for a second and feigned it as a wobble as if Dean had surprised him (which in all fairness he had), "I need my brain looking at but it's true. I wouldn't ever change you, Dean." 

"Good," Dean moved from behind Castiel and put his hand on his shoulder, "don't ever change, okay. 'Cus the same goes for me with you." 

Cas blinked but nodded an okay, Dean squeezed his shoulder and went downstairs leaving Cas shell shocked for a few more seconds before he heard Dean loudly asking what people wanted for breakfast, and if Cas didn't hurry up he'd be stuck with melted snow, which Mary found hilarious. 

Cas was so screwed. 

Breakfast passed with only a few incidents of Mary wriggling to the edge of her seat trying to sneak from the table, but she shuffled back with a stern look from Jess and stopped doing it when Sam told her to behave. 

Castiel was quite amazed how well-behaved she was. Though she did keep glancing at the door to the kitchen that would lead to the corridor and the living room. 

They had pancakes and toast for breakfast, with orange juice for Mary and coffee for the adults, most of whom practically downed the first cup and then sipped at the second more sedately. 

When they'd all eaten their fill Jess sighed and looked at Mary, the young girl perked up and smiled brightly as Jess smiled and jerked her head towards the living room. Mary whooped and jumped off her chair then ran in the direction of the tree. 

The four adults stood up and followed her slowly, they found her kneeling by the tree and carefully moving presents about into piles, Cas realising she was organising everyone's presents into groups to make it easier for them when she proudly told him which pile was his before asking if she could open one now. 

"Oh I don't know, it's Uncle Dean's house," Sam grinned, "what do you say Uncle Dean?" 

"Hmm," Dean pretended to think as Mary said his name in frustration, Dean laughed and nodded, "yeah, go ahead Monkey, pick one and open it." 

Mary turned to her pile and moved them around till she found the one from Castiel, She span to face everyone and sat with the present between her legs as she ripped open the wrapping paper, Cas feeling a small amount of pride that she'd picked his first, and glancing at Dean who pulled a hurt face and put his hand over his heart and made Castiel snort. 

"Cas I love it!" Mary suddenly flung her arms around Cas' neck with a squeal as she held the box to a new doll in her hands, "can you help me open her?" 

"Of course I will," Jess passed Castiel a pair of scissors she'd stashed on a table the night before and Mary leant on Cas' knee while he carefully opened the box and cut the doll out of the packaging, when he'd done Mary smacked a kiss to his cheek and thanked him, moving to her other dolls to introduce 'Ruby' to them. 

"Looks like Cas is the flavour of the holiday this year," Sam stage whispered to Jess as Dean hit him with a pillow, Castiel laughed as Dean aimed a mock glare in his direction but couldn't help the soft smile he ended up giving Cas instead. 

Through the course of the morning Mary opened some of her other presents, saving the larger ones till later for after lunch. 

At about eight Dean stole Castiel to help him get the lunch set up, they set the oven to a low heat then, pulled the turkey out of the fridge along with some other bits to make pigs in blankets. 

As they prepared the turkey Cas nudged Dean gently, "does Mary have grandparents? I just realised I've been living with you for months and haven't even asked." 

Dean smiled sadly and pricked the skin of the bird to rub butter under it, "no, mine and Sammy's mom died in a house fire when we were little, and our dad died a couple of years ago. Jess had a bit of a fall out with her parents while she was in college, which is where she met Sam. They just don't speak any more." 

Cas frowned as he helped to push the butter under the skin of the turkey, "wow, okay I'm glad I didn't ask that in the living room." 

Dean snorted and flicked water at Cas from the jug he'd got to pour it over the turkey, "what about you? No family plans?" 

"No, my brother travels too much for us to have a proper Christmas," Cas wiped the droplets from his face with his arm, "but I'll see him at some point when he's free, and I don't get along with my parents either, they, uh, disowned me when I left to go to college because they didn't believe in it. The fact that I'm bi doesn't really help the relationship I had with them. It was explosive at best, especially after Gabe left." 

"They didn't believe in college?" Dean mirrored Cas' frown, his heart doing a little flip at the fact Castiel was bisexual. He turned to put the turkey in the oven to hide his face but noticed Cas had started to shape sausage meat for pigs in blankets without even needing to be told to so hadn't noticed the flicker of whatever it was that had crossed his face. 

"Yeah, they run a business so they expected me to just follow in their footsteps. Since Gabe was older and basically ran away when he was old enough to go to college and now owns his own business, they just assumed that I'd be meek and stick around. But I liked what Gabe had managed to make of himself and I don't really agree with my father's morals." 

Dean opened his mouth but Mary ran into the kitchen before he could respond and stopped by the other side of the table when she saw they were busy and waited politely until they both looked at her. 

"Mom said to come get you so you can all open some presents too!" 

"Tell your mom we'll be in in five minutes, okay Monkey?" 

"Okay!" 

Mary ran back out of the kitchen and Dean sighed, he dried off his hands and put one on Castiel's shoulder, "I don't even know what to say, man, asshole dads aren't fun but you're always welcome in this family, okay?" 

Cas swallowed around a sudden lump in his throat, "thank you, Dean." Castiel coughed slightly and turned away to wash his hands. 

Dean watched him for a few seconds before sighing quietly again and going into the living room, giving Cas a minute of peace to compose himself. 

Castiel leant against the sink and sighed, he heard Mary excitedly telling Dean about the presents she'd helped him pick out with Sam and smiled. He lifted his head and stared at the wall behind the sink for a moment before drying his hands and moving into the living room to Mary handing out presents to the others, he sat in the seat next to Dean on the couch as Sam was sat on the floor with Mary and leaning against Jess' legs on the chair as Mary bounded over and gently placed a present in his lap before spinning back to the tree. 

The present was wrapped in a blue sparkly paper with a tag on it in a green shiny tree shape, it was hand cut from what Cas could tell. When he turned it over he saw his name and then "from Dean" underneath it, the 'f' looked weird, as if something else had been written first then the 'f' put over the top of it. 

Cas picked it up and shook it slightly, Dean snorted as Cas frowned at the lack of movement in the box and glared at it. 

"OKAY!" Mary shouted, "everyone's got one, open up!" 

The adults laughed but obeyed the hyper five year old, each of them opening their presents with lot less gusto than Mary. 

Sam's present was from Castiel, it was a set of books Cas had seen Sam eyeing when they were looking for presents for Dean and Jess, Sam grinned widely and actually stood up to hug Cas in thanks, Cas smiled and said he was glad he'd got the right ones while Jess shouted at him for making her lose her husband. 

Dean leant against Cas slightly as Jess fake-ranted about how she'd end up playing mistress to a set of books and getting a divorce 'cus Sam loved them more than her. Sam laughed and leant over her and kissed her deeply then started murmuring to her and Dean nudged Cas' elbow to make Cas look at him. 

When Castiel glanced over Dean raised an eyebrow and Cas smiled and nodded, he leant back against Dean's arm in a silent thanks and watched as Jess finished unwrapping her present from Dean, it was her favourite perfume and Jess kissed Dean's forehead in thanks. 

Dean's present was from Sam, and true to form it was something for his car. It was a wax kit that Dean grinned at and happily said he was about to run out of so it was perfect timing, he thanked Sam with a hug and flopped back down next to Cas as Cas fought to get into the box that he'd wrapped, much to Dean's amusement. 

He'd behaved with the wrapping and had wrapped a box inside with a deep blue sweater that Castiel instantly swapped his dressing gown for, which Dean managed to hide his reaction to very well with just a slight wriggle on the couch since Cas had thrown his dressing gown at him, but the box was covered in tape and mysteriously the scissors had gone missing. 

After five minutes of fighting with it Castiel finally managed to get in to the box with a shout of triumph, a lot of laughter from the others in the room, and a punch to Dean's arm which only made Dean laugh more. 

Cas stared at the things in the box for a moment before lifting one up and bursting into laughter, "'gold' plated bedknobs, brilliant." Dean grinned at him as Sam and Jess looked at each other in confusion, but with soft smiles at the realisation it was an inside joke, "I thought you said you'd not get me these?" 

"Well I changed my mind," Dean bumped his shoulder into Castiel's as Cas laughed and thanked him shyly before replacing the gold painted wooden ball carefully into the box and putting the whole thing on the table next to him. Dean watched him with a soft smile and Castiel's face softened when he turned back to thank him, both of them missing the knowing glance Sam and Jess gave each other. 

Mary bounded up to Dean with another present that needed to have scissors to get into, and Dean revealed the scissors were actually under his cushion on the couch, to which Cas called mutiny, and the moment was lost. 

If only slightly. 

The smell of turkey cooking wafted from the kitchen as Mary decided the adults needed to open another present, she gently placed presents in each of their laps and got excited for them, especially when she realised the one for Cas was the one that she'd helped Jess and Sam pick out. 

Jess went first, she opened the present from Castiel and squealed slightly at the amount of Lush things that Cas had got her, she jumped up and hugged him, planting a kiss on his cheek before proceeding to get each bath bomb out and smell them individually, proclaiming that she couldn't decide which her favourite was. 

"Y'know how she was saying she'd lost me to books? Now I feel the same way about her and the bath," Sam grinned as Jess tipped his head back and kissed him gently before wiping some glitter on his nose and laughing as Sam yelped and scrubbed at the sparkly patch, doing nothing but spreading the glitter everywhere. 

"You look like a fairy, Samantha," Dean gasped with laughter as Cas snorted but tried to look sympathetic as Sam glared at the two of them. 

Sam opened up the present from Jess, finding a new laptop inside it and jumping up to kiss her and loudly state that she could rub as much glitter over him as she wanted to, to which Dean and Cas both clamped their hands over their ears saying they didn't want to know and Mary squealed about wanting glitter to make pictures with. 

Dean's present was from Jess, it was a bar of chocolate and a cook book, Mary proudly saying the chocolate was her idea because there were buns in the cook book and it wasn't right to have buns without chocolate. Dean proudly gave her a strip of chocolate for that comment. 

Castiel opened the present from Sam, grinning as a set of books came into view and excitedly turning them over to look at the blurbs as Sam explained he wasn't sure what kind of books Cas liked, but had some ideas from what Dean had told him was on his book case, so hoped that Cas'd like them. 

He assured Sam that he would, and promised to update him as he started reading. 

"Well before you get your nose buried come help me with the turkey, would you?" Dean grinned and clapped a hand on Cas' knee, Castiel jumped slightly but Dean moved his hand quickly so it almost looked like it was just the momentum of Dean smacking his leg that made him jump. 

Almost. 

Castiel stirred the strange concoction Dean passed him while Dean got the turkey out of the oven to dribble the stuff over. Cas watched as Dean carefully removed the foil that had been over the bird and use a spoon to move the water from the bottom of the baking tray (which was now more like a weak broth) over the top of the meat then signalled for the jug Cas was vigorously stirring. 

Carefully he brushed the mixture over the bird, smiling and winking conspirationally when Castiel asked what it was, causing the blue eyed man to huff and threaten to leave if Dean wasn't going to share, ruining the effect of his threat with a smile. 

Dean had to turn away from Castiel pretty quickly, he'd made a good choice with the colour of that sweater. Possibly too good a choice. Damn. It was just the right shade of blue to make his eyes glow while being dark enough that it looked quite sophisticated. Add a button down shirt under it with the collar above the sweater and... Dean needed to stop that train of thought. 

"Yeah right, you love the mystery that obviously rolls off me in waves." 

"Yeah about as much as I'd love another hole in the head," Dean laughed as Cas grinned, "Dean how many people are we actually planning on cooking for, here?" Cas waved his hand at the amount of food that had been prepared and left to stand and Dean glanced around. 

"Oh this lot? This'd just about feed Sammy if we let him loose. I'm sure the guy has a hollow leg," Castiel laughed, "really though, there might be some left over, but that's no big deal. Better to make more and people be fed than not enough and people go hungry." 

Cas mumbled his agreement as Sam wandered into the kitchen to get a drink. 

"Oh my god that smells amazing," he said as he breathed in deeply, "it's making me hungry already!" 

Castiel glanced at the clock and saw it was pushing ten am, "well there's another couple of hours to wait yet, think you can manage?" 

"I don't know," Sam pulled a face as he poured a glass of orange juice each for Mary, him and Jess, "I might pass out from starvation before then." 

Dean laughed, "don't worry, Sammy, I'm sure you'll cope." 

"Maybe, only time will tell!" 

He carefully picked up the three glasses and moved back to the living room with a strange smile, Cas and Dean watched him go with a small sense of unease. 

Cas leant closer to Dean while staring at the doorway, "why do I feel like he's planning something?" 

"Because he probably is." Dean mumbled with a worried look, then shrugged and grinned at Cas, "but I think if you pin him down I can tickle him into submission, what do you say?" 

"Wait why do I have to pin him down?!" 

"Because that's the more dangerous bit! Do you know how much the guy flails?" 

"Thanks, really appreciate that," Castiel shook his head as Dean patted his shoulder and laughed again. 

They made their way back to the living room and as they went through the doorway Jess shouted for them to stop and look up, barely containing giggles as she did, Sam's shit eating grin made both Dean and Cas pause and look at each other before looking up. 

There was mistletoe in the doorway. 

Oh. 

The two of them stared at it for a moment, then looked at each other, blushed then turned to glare simultaneously at Sam and Jess, the latter of which had a camera poised and ready. 

"It's tradition guys, if you don't it's bad luck!" Sam shrugged as Dean's glare deepened. 

"I hate you, you know that right?" he asked as Jess giggled more and blew them both a kiss. Dean sighed and turned to Cas, "if you don't want to, I get it man, I won't be offended," Dean grinned but Castiel could swear he saw a spark of hope in Dean's eyes. 

It seemed to disappear quite quickly, as if Dean realised then threw a blanket over it, but Cas was sure he saw it all the same. 

Castiel smiled and shook his head, "it's fine, you heard Sam, it's bad luck if we don't," Cas shrugged and turned to face Dean properly. Dean shuffled a bit and smiled softly before leaning closer and kissing Castiel gently, cupping his face as he did and moving away just after the flash of the camera went off. 

Cas felt his heart stutter to a stop when their lips touched, he sucked in a breath through his nose and leant into the kiss slightly, somehow not whimpering when Dean moved away, he opened his eyes to see Dean's almost glowing with happiness before Dean winked at him and reached up to remove the mistletoe. 

"And that's coming down now before this gets really weird," Dean laughed and tucked it behind a picture on the table behind Castiel, meaning he had to lean into Cas to do so and Cas felt his heart flutter again. When Dean leant back Cas gave Dean a shaky smile then moved back to the couch. 

Dean flopped next to him a little closer than before, still with a light blush on his face as Sam and Jess cooed over how cute the picture was. Dean groaned but smiled softly as Jess showed it them. 

Castiel agreed that it was a lovely picture, and Jess said if they didn't see it framed on the mantle piece next time they were over then there would be hell to pay. Mary watched all this quietly and then started asking questions about what mistletoe meant. 

After Cas patiently explained Mary ran to get it and then stood on tiptoes and waved it over Jess and Sam's head, "daddy said he wanted more excuses to just kiss mommy," she explained after Sam laughed and kissed Jess with a huge grin, "so why don't you just walk about with a bit of this all the time?" 

"It only works at Christmas, sweetheart," Jess laughed as Mary held it over her own head and Sam blew raspberries on her cheek after giving her a sloppy kiss and made Mary squeal with laughter. 

Mary ran over to Dean and held it over her head again, then did the same to Cas. Castiel glanced at Jess as Mary waited patiently with puckered lips and closed eyes, Jess nodded and Cas quickly placed a light kiss to Mary's lips before Mary bounded to Jess and did the same thing. 

"There, now we all have good luck!" Mary said while she carefully put the sprig of mistletoe back on the table. 

Dean agreed and shot a pretend glare at Sam and Jess as they cooed about the picture of him and Cas again, a smile threatening the corners of his mouth as Castiel laughed and leant lightly against his arm, enough for Dean to feel it but not enough for it to be obvious to the others. 

Mary played quietly with her presents as the others talked, Sam and Cas both flicking through their books and reading a few pages before Dean and Jess banished the books to their rooms so they wouldn't be anti-social. 

Sam and Cas threatened to stake a mutiny in protest, but when Dean pointed out that he could just deny them food Sam went quiet, to which Cas called him a traitor. 

"Dude, you won't be saying that after you taste Dean's turkey. Whatever that weirdass stuff he brushes it with is, it's amazing." 

"Speaking of!" Dean jumped up and moved back into the kitchen, it had been an hour since they last did anything to the turkey and Cas asked if Dean needed help, Dean smiled at him from the doorway, "nah, this bit's secret and no one's allowed to see," he winked at Cas, who blushed, then disappeared into the kitchen. 

Sam jumped up to go to the bathroom, and Mary shouted after him to 'leave the books alone', Sam stuck his head around the door frame and blew a kiss to her as she sighed. 

"Hey, Cas," Jess said quietly as Mary bounded to his side and clambered onto his lap with Ruby and asked Cas to help her plait her hair, Cas glanced up while he separated Ruby's hair and slowly showed Mary how to plait her hair, "I'm sorry if that was awkward," Jess nodded to the mistletoe, "just sometimes Dean needs a bit of a push." 

Castiel smiled, "it's fine, I don't mind." 

"You two make a cute couple, you know," Cas blushed, "I just think you two would be so good for each other, but I didn't want to really impose." 

"Well, thank you, I guess we've just gotta see where things go," Mary thanked Cas with a hug and a reminder that she'd love him to be her other uncle and moved back to her dolls as Dean came back into the living room and grinned at him, Jess smiled and nodded as Dean flopped next to Cas again. 

"Stealing my niece, I don't know, I feel distinctly left out!" 

"I still love you, Uncle Dean!" Mary shouted from her fort of wrapping paper and boxes. 

"You'd better, I need my sauce mixer to have all her love ready to go!" 

Mary grinned and mimed stirring a pan, "got it!" 

Sam came back into the living room and curled himself to the chair that Dean normally sat in after kissing Jess on the top of her head on the way past, "man, stop talking about food this is unfair!" 

"Give it an hour, Sammy, and everything will be ready to go!" 

"An hour?!" Jess and Castiel laughed as Sam clutched at his chest and dramatically threw himself back in his chair. 

"More present time then!" Mary said as she shoved a present into Sam's hands, Sam laughed and began to open it as Mary passed Cas, Dean and Jess one. 

Sam's was from Dean, and it was a Barbie. Dean and Cas laughed as Sam sighed and Mary squealed in horror, thinking she'd got the present mixed up but then looked very confused when she re-read the tag and found out it really was Sam's. 

Sam then had to explain it was a long-running joke from when they were little and Mary didn't look any less confused. Sam just gave her the doll and Mary accepted it with a smile. 

Jess' present was from Sam, and it was a book of poetry, Jess gasped and stroked the cover with a smile as she looked up at Sam and sniffed slightly. 

"It was one her grandma used to read her," Dean murmured to Cas as Jess stood up and hugged Sam tightly, "her sister got her grandma's copy and she's not seen it in years, it took us forever to search the thing down. Sam's had it on lock down here for ages." 

Castiel smiled softly at Sam and Dean as he finished unwrapping his present from Jess, it was an aftershave kit and he waved away her apology that she didn't really know what to get him, he stood and hugged her quickly saying it was his favourite type, and Jess admitted to finding it out from Dean. 

Dean just smiled as Cas thanked him for telling her. 

Dean's present was from Cas, and Cas held his breath as Dean opened it and laughed, it was a dark green sweater with a blue plaid shirt around it, Mary proudly telling Dean that the colour ofthe shirt had been her idea. Dean carefully picked them up and frowned because they were wrapped around something, he carefully unwound the clothing from around a cassette tape and blinked at it then turned it over to see the front. 

"Oh..." 

Cas had spent a while looking himself when he wasn't with Sam, Sam had helped him decide on the shirt explaining that 'no Dean really hardly wore anything else he wasn't doing it to mess with Cas', but Cas felt like the shirt didn't mean enough. So got a green jumper that reminded him of Dean's eyes, but still felt like it wasn't enough. 

So Cas had made something. 

Dean picked up the cassette and read over the handwritten title and tracklist, Castiel's neat cursive in a bright blue pen against the lines. 

_"Songs to sing and drive to, a narrative by Dean Winchester (as observed by Castiel Novak)_  
 _1) Enter Sandman - Metallica (because I think you'd kill me if this wasn't on here.)_  
 _2) Ramble On - Led Zeppelin (because you enjoy singing this one.)_  
 _3) Pour some Sugar On Me - Def Leppard (because this is extremely fun to watch you dance to.)_  
 _4) Dream Of Mirrors - Iron Maiden (I haven't heard you sing this, or even listen to Iron Maiden [isn't that a torture device?] but the guy at the record shop said they go well with your other tastes in music so I hope you like it.)_  
 _5) Back In Black - AC/DC (I KNOW you like this one. A lot.)_  
 _6) Heat of the Moment - Asia (you seem to enjoy this one, I'm not sure why, though it is catchy.)_  
 _7) Carry on my Wayward Son - Kansas (because it's your hometown? But you always shout about it being a classic.)_  
 _8) Here I Go Again - Whitesnake (because you dancing to this is the funniest thing I've ever seen.)_  
 _9) Cherry Pie - Warrant (because you go a little too doey eyed over pie.)_  
 _10) Demons - Imagine Dragons (I heard this playing in a store, I liked it, I don't know if you will but the lyrics are nice.)"_

Dean grinned and hugged Cas tightly, "Cas, it's perfect, thank you. But you know that I'm gonna subject you to this forever now, right?" 

"I know," Cas sighed theatrically, "I don't know how I'll ever cope." 

The others laughed as Dean removed his dressing gown and pulled on his sweater, Cas' breath caught in his throat as Dean smiled at him, the green of his eyes seeming to deepen and sparkle with the help of the jumper and the fire. 

A timer went off in the kitchen and Dean glanced at the clock, breaking the spell slightly, "time to start getting everything else in the oven and on the stove, you ready for a bit of madness?" 

"Sure," Cas said, smiling at the fact that Dean was still smiling, and damn his eyes for sparkling so much. 

The last of the dinner preparations seemed to pass in a blur, the table was set and bowing under the weight of all the food before Castiel could blink. And Sam was happily tucking into the mound of food before the rest of them had even finished fitting bits of food on their plate. 

"Slow down, Sammy, it's not gonna run away!" Dean laughed as Sam grinned around the fork full of food, Cas watched him with a mixture of amusement and terror as Sam seemed to inhale everything on his plate. 

Dean nudged Castiel, "told you he'd eat it all!" Cas laughed as he finally tried a bite of the turkey and groaned slightly as the flavour exploded on is tongue. 

"See!" Sam said triumphantly, "THAT is why I relented in my threats to stage a book mutiny." 

"I can definitely see why you did," Cas said looking at Dean with awe, Dean squirmed and the blush on his cheeks was slightly obvious. 

Dean hoped he could pass it off as the praise he was getting, not from the noise that Castiel had made. 

"See this is why I can get away with getting Sam a silly present," Dean grinned as he popped a pea into his mouth. 

Sam nodded and shrugged, helping himself to a bit more of the meat in question as Jess sighed and laughed. 

"I don't mind, it means I get an extra doll!" Mary said happily, leaning towards Cas as he wiped gravy from around her mouth with a laugh. 

\------ 

After the massive lunch, and some time to relax and digest a bit, they went out to play in the snow again, Cas and Dean hurriedly building walls to have a massive snowball fight which Jess happily stood away from and took a few pictures, until Mary insisted that she could do it and made Sam and Jess go and join in. 

The resulting picture was actually really nice, and Mary got another strip of Dean's chocolate for a reward. It showed Jess and Castiel on one side, with Sam and Dean on the other, snowballs in the middle of the two shelters and the four adults laughing after throwing them. 

When they were all exhausted and cold, they moved back inside and changed back into pyjamas. Dean and Castiel made them all hot chocolates and they sung along to Christmas carols while Dean played the keyboard he set up in the corner of the room, Cas joining him for a few of the songs to prove him wrong after Dean complained about being the only one who knew how to play. 

No one had a straight face or dry eyes after they sung the Twelve Days of Christmas and Castiel did a goofy dance to the entire song, Mary trying her best to join in enthusiastically. 

"Oh I need to sit down," Jess giggled as she hugged Mary and Cas, "that was wonderful, thank you." 

The rest of the afternoon was spent with Mary playing with her dolls ad the adults playing charades and 'who am I?', the end result being Castiel leading with points and Dean sulking because it was normally him in the lead. 

"Don't worry Dean," Cas patted Dean's leg and grinned, "I'll share my points with you so you don't feel as bad." 

Dean stuck his tongue out at Cas and the others just laughed. 

When it got to dinner time Dean plated up bread with cold meats and cheeses, as well as an egg mayonnaise that Castiel almost just ate out of the bowl, and that he made Dean promise to make more often for sandwich fillings. 

When Mary started to get tired she crawled onto the couch between Dean and Cas and Dean put on Christmas films, she ended up falling asleep on Cas' lap with her head cushioned on his shoulder. 

Jess gave Castiel a fond look as he carefully stood up and moved Mary to bed, thanking him while Sam said he'd have done it but Cas waved it away with a smile. 

Dean poured them all a glass of eggnog and laughed as Sam pulled a face, he'd poured extra rum into Sam's out of a sheer desire to mess with his brother, Sam moved to the kitchen to balance out the concoction and refused to let Dean top his drink up even when Dean brought the bowl into the living room instead. 

As the night wore on and they got more tipsy Jess ended up going to bed before she drank too much so there was at least one of them 'capable of living tomorrow' and left Sam and Dean to regale Cas with tales about their previous Christmasses. 

"We'll probably go and visit uncle Bobby as well as Ellen and Jo and Ash tomorrow, and Charlie says I've gotta drop by and bring everyone over at some point during the day too," Dean said with a smile, "she says she misses Gigantor over there." 

Sam laughed and raised his glass, "that'll be good, it's been ages since I've seen Charlie. I miss our little not-sister." 

"That's what you get for being a big-shot lawyer," Dean grinned. 

"Hey, you're the one who won't get Skype so we can all chat properly!" 

"Because that thing is evil, Sammy! It never works." 

Cas watched them bicker with a soft smile, he was feeling warm, and welcome, and happy. He didn't really mind what else they did for Christmas because he'd had such a fantastic time so far, and he almost dreaded Sam, Jess and Mary leaving because it would seem so quiet without them. 

Dean nudged his arm and smiled at him, "hey, Cas, cheer up, it's Christmas!" 

Cas snorted, "really? I'd not noticed," Sam laughed, "I am happy, Dean. Really happy. I just feel so thankful for you letting me share a piece of this and I'm forever grateful that I found this motel." 

"Yeah, who knew the odd night here and there would lead you to being molested by my niece and getting drunk on home made eggnog?" Dean grinned as Sam toasted to the sentiment with another laugh. 

Castiel smiled warmly at the two brothers and yawned slightly, Sam followed suit with a huge yawn and blinked rapidly to clear his eyes. 

"I'd agree with that one, Cas, I think I'm gonna head to bed guys. Need a hand clearing up, Dean?" 

"Nah, I'll do it tomorrow, thanks Sammy," Dean stood to hug his brother goodnight and Sam signalled for Cas to do the same, clapping them both on their shoulders and swaying slightly as he moved away to go upstairs. 

Dean waited till he heard the bathroom door shut before he descended into laughter about how much of a lightweight Sam was, and Cas chided him about spiking Sam's drink. "Yeah but still, he only had a little bit more alcohol than us and we're fine!" 

Castiel shook his head and smiled softly at Dean, "you're terrible." 

"Damn right, that's what older brothers are for!" Dean grinned and finished the last of his own drink then stood up, "he does have a good point though, we've a busy day tomorrow so hitting the sack might be a good idea." 

Cas nodded and yawned again, "I think I'd have to agree," he got up to put his empty glass in the sink and stretched, he caught Dean staring and Dean turned away with a blush, Castiel smiled and hugged him, squeezing him tightly. 

"I meant it when I say I'm incredibly happy, Dean. Thank you." 

"Hey man, you went through some shit and I'm just glad I could help you out of it. Best thing you can have is a friend when things like that happen." 

Castiel nodded and bit his lip, he saw Dean's eyes flick to his mouth and darken slightly, so he leant in and planted a gentle kiss on Dean's cheek. 

"Goodnight, Dean." 

He heard Dean suck in a breath as Cas' lips met his cheek, and felt Dean sway into the contact slightly, as he moved away Dean's eyes had widened and got darker still and his mouth had dropped into an 'O' shape, Castiel smiled again and went to bed, putting his glass in the sink as he went past the kitchen. 

When he turned around it was to Dean stood behind him blushing and Cas jumped, Dean smiled and held the mistletoe above his head with a wink, "can I get some more good luck?" 

Castiel laughed and moved closer to Dean, "only if you promise to share it with me." 

"Deal," Dean grinned and closed the distance between the two of them, cupping Castiel's cheek with one hand and wrapping the hand that held the mistletoe around Castiel's waist. 

Castiel's hands went to Dean's back and he leant into the kiss, parting his lips with a sigh when Dean licked at the seam of them and Cas nibbled on Dean's bottom lip as he met Dean's tongue with his own. 

The two of them stood together kissing slowly for what seemed like an eternity, Cas didn't mind though, and from the appreciative sighs neither did Dean. When they finally moved apart they rested their foreheads together for a few moments to catch their breath and Dean chuckled. 

"Why haven't we been doing that for longer?" 

"Because we were both too chicken shit?" Cas laughed and Dean dropped his head to Cas' shoulder and laughed into his neck, kissing the soft skin behind his ear before murmuring an agreement into Cas' ear then gently nibbling on the ear lobe, causing Cas to groan. 

"Dean, you have a house full of your relatives, don't do that." 

"Why, are you a moaner?" Dean grinned and his eyes seemed to flash with mischief. 

"Oh," Castiel pushed him back against the unit, "you," he mouthed slightly at Dean's collarbone, "have," Cas trailed a kisses up his neck, "no," he bit at the sensitive skin under Dean's ear, "idea." His voice got lower with each word and he both heard and felt Dean's breath hitch as he pushed their hips together and kissed Dean firmly but chastely. 

Dean actually whimpered when Cas stepped away with a smirk, "save that thought for when it's just us two." Cas left Dean leaning against the counter and trying to catch his breath. 

\------ 

"You get yer asses over here right now!" Dean and Sam laughed as they climbed out of the car and raced each other to Bobby's front door, the gruff looking man stood grinning at the top of the stairs and laughed while being enveloped by the two brothers. 

Jess and Cas laughed at them as Mary hovered slightly behind Jess' legs, Bobby waved at her and she waved back with a smile but didn't move further towards him till Jess did, leaving Cas to lock up the Impala and bring Dean the keys with a smile and a wink. 

Dean gulped and was thankful bobby was too busy fussing over Mary and Jess to notice how his ears and cheeks turned slightly pink. 

"And who's this one?" Bobby asked with a slight glare at Dean when he'd ushered Jess and Mary inside out of the cold. 

"Bobby, this is Cas, he's a... Good friend of mine." 

"And by that do you mean you've got a stonkin' crush on him?" 

"Bobby!" 

Castiel laughed and held out his hand, "yes sir it does, it's nice to meet you, I've heard a lot of things." 

"They'd better all be good!" Bobby shook his hand firmly. 

"Oh of course!" 

"Damn right!" Bobby winked at Cas as Dean was still spluttering, "get inside, yah idjit. It ain't my fault this boy's all you've been able to talk about for the past four months. I'm glad he wasn't a figment of your imagination." 

"Now I'm worried what he's been telling you..." 

"Oh come inside and let me tell yah!" Bobby clapped his hands together then moved through the doorway and signalled for Cas to follow. 

"Whatever he says, it's a lie!" Dean shouted as he crowded Cas through the doorway and pressed his chest against Cas' back. Cas leant into his warmth and grinned at him over his shoulder. 

"I promise to take everything with a pinch of salt." 

"Oh god, this was a bad idea," Dean pinched the bridge of his nose and scrunched his eyes shut but smiled and cracked an eye open at Cas' laugh. 

The six of them crowded into Bobby's living room, Mary already sat on the floor and playing with her dolls as Bobby moved among everyone handing out freshly brewed coffees and an orange juice for Mary. 

Mary soon warmed to Bobby properly when he got down on the floor with her and asked to join in, Sam and Dean hiding laughter behind their hands as Mary excitedly started putting bright pink butterfly clips in Bobby's hair and Jess sneakily snuck pictures. 

The glares they got were very impressive. 

Ellen, Jo and Ash showed up a bit later, all of them bringing gifts for the rest of the group (and dying of laughter at the clips in Bobby's hair) which got opened quickly in a flurry of wrapping and squeals of 'thank you!' from Mary when she was given more toys and a few sweets. 

Though Mary never strayed too far from either Jess', Sam's or Cas' side when she could help it since Dean was very engrossed with Ash and Jo, Ellen and Bobby stayed with Cas, Jess and Mary for the most part though they sat diplomatically between the two groups. 

Dean did keep flicking glances at Cas, though, and raising his eyebrows to check if he was okay, which Cas appreciated but tried to assure him wasn't necessary when Dean showed him where the bathroom was in Bobby's maze of an upstairs. The downstairs one being out of commission. 

"I figured you'd be fine, Bobby's a gruff old man but he's been like a dad to me and Sammy all our lives." 

Cas just smiled and kissed Dean gently, murmuring a 'thank you' against his lips and smiling at how Dean's eyes remained closed as a small smile tugged at his mouth when Cas moved away to use the bathroom. 

As the morning wore into lunchtime, Bobby roped Ellen and Dean into making sandwiches with him, leaving Cas to acquaint himself with Ash and Jo, both of whom had wonderfully embarrassing stories of Dean as a kid to tell. 

Cas left with a lot of ammunition for future teasings. As well as a very good chance he'd laughed away the Christmas dinner from the night before. 

Mary sat quietly between Sam and Jess as Dean pulled the car out of the drive, but waved to Bobby excitedly when he stood on the porch to see them off. She started combing her doll's hair and chatting excitedly about how much she liked Christmas. 

Dean glanced at Castiel sat in the front of the car with him, and agreed that it had been a very good year. Sam and Jess made awwing noises and Dean blushed and sealed his lips with a frown. 

The frown disappeared when Cas gently and subtly squeezed the hand that was on the joystick of the car. 

When they got to Charlie's house Dean disappeared under a smaller girl with a fan of flame red hair who made a sound not much different to a screech owl when she dove off the porch and into Dean's arms. 

Then did the same thing minus the screech to Sam but from the floor. 

Jess and Mary got more subdued hugs, and Cas got a very polite handshake. Which seemed to amuse him more than Dean thought it should. 

Though Dean was stood wiggling his finger in his ear as Sam laughed at him probably was the real reason for Castiel's amusement. 

Charlie pulled them all inside and through her house to the back garden, she opened the door with a flourish to untouched snow and Mary whooped loudly as she ran into the clean drifts. 

"I didn't go out at all 'cos I knew you'd all be coming," Charlie winked at Cas, "this way we get to have a proper snowball fight and there's nothing to weedle out of it!" 

Dean and Sam laughed as Cas eyed the snow warily, "why do I feel like I don't have the necessary snowball skills to not get my ass handed to me?" 

"Probably because you don't," Charlie grinned and ran out to where Mary was happily throwing handfuls of snow into the air and giggling. 

Castiel was completely right about having his ass handed to him. Charlie and Dean made a terrifying team, Cas and Sam had absolutely no hope at all. It was made more even when Sam and Charlie swapped places but Castiel still ended up with more snow down his jacket than there was in the whole county. 

Or so he groused when he had to borrow a spare shirt of Dean's because of his being soaked. 

Charlie just laughed and threw his shirt into the dryer for him when she made drinks. 

By the time Cas' shirt was dry it was nearing dinner time, so Charlie and Dean put together a lasagne for everyone. Complete with garlic bread and salad. 

Dean said the salad was only for Sam, but ate some under Charlie's glare. 

The team of five piled into Dean's car, tired but happy and well-fed, Mary fell asleep in the car back to Dean and Cas' house and was transferred instantly to bed when they got into the warmth, Jess going to bed not long after as they were going to be leaving the next day, and New years was going to be spent at their house so Jess wanted to get back to make sure she had everything that was needed. 

Castiel accepted his invitation happily, promising that he'd be there and bring something to put to the festivities. 

Sam, Dean and Cas put on a film to tide away time in the evening, Cas started to drift almost instantly and ended up almost tipping onto Dean's shoulder while Sam laughed at him. 

Dean just smiled and pulled Cas against his side, gently tipping Cas' head into place on Dean's shoulder. Sam pulled a face to show how adorable he found it and quickly snapped a picture on his phone for Jess. 

"Bitch," Dean grinned at him while he played with Cas' hair. 

"Jerk," Sam said with a grin. 

Castiel just hummed in happiness at Dean combing through his unruly hair. 

When the film was half way done Sam admitted defeat, telling the other two that he'd see them in the morning and telling them to keep it down. Dean flicked his middle finger in Sam's direction and hugged Cas closer to him with a smirk. 

Sam rolled his eyes and left. Even though he was smiling. 

Dean continued to play with Castiel's hair as Cas snuggled closer to him and sighed happily, pushing his head into Dean's caresses and letting one of his arms sneak around Dean's waist. 

"I'm an idiot for not doing this sooner," Dean mumbled quietly. 

"You and me both," Cas managed to slur through a yawn, Dean laughed quietly and Cas pinched his hip, causing Dean to jump and yelp slightly because he wasn't expecting it. "What was that you asked me about being loud?" Cas moved his head to grin at Dean and his breath hitched as Dean moved forwards and caught his lips in a gentle kiss. 

Cas groaned slightly and leant into the pressure of lips against his, he felt Dean smile then felt his tongue run along the seam of his lips, so he returned the gesture and licked his way into Dean's mouth, earning him a gentle sigh and Dean's hand burying itself in the shorter hairs at the back of Castiel's neck. 

Cas tightened the arm around Dean's waist and moved closer to him, pressing their chests together slightly as he tilted his head to deepen the kiss. He nibbled at Deans bottom lip making Dean... Oh god. Making him growl and press into Cas harder. 

Castiel whimpered slightly as Dean moved his lips away and started to kiss down Cas' neck, gently laving over spots on his neck that made Cas' breath hitch and caused Castiel to bite his lip to hold in the whines that threatened to escape. 

Dean moved back up Cas' neck and hovered by his ear, "you can joke all you like about me being loud, but when it's just us two I'm gonna make you moan so loud that the walls will shake." 

Cas tipped his head forwards into the join between Dean's shoulder and neck and groaned into his skin, his hips canting slightly at the promise Dean wove into his skin with gentle nibbles and hard kisses. 

Dean slowed his kisses and gentled Cas' shaking by running his hands up and down Castiel's back, when the dark haired man had caught his breath he moved away and glared at Dean. 

"That is cruel." 

Dean winked, "it's only cruel if I don't follow through on it, angel." 

Cas suddenly straddled Dean's legs and pushed his shoulders against the back of the couch by Dean's chest, he leant forward slowly and narrowed his eyes, "well then," he growled, "you'd better make damn sure that you DO follow through on that, Dean Winchester." 

Dean gulped slightly but nodded, Cas kissed him hard before standing up and moving away to bed with a smirk at the whine that left Dean's lips at the loss of contact. "Don't play with someone who's willing to play along, Dean," Cas winked as he left the room. 

Dean stared after him and blinked a couple of times. The film had come to an end and the credits were rolling up the screen as he cleared his throat and adjusted the semi-erection that the last few minutes had caused. 

For once, Dean couldn't wait for Sam, Jess and Mary to leave. 

\------ 

Mary didn't want to go home. She clung to Cas' hand and sulked through the morning while Sam and Jess packed the car and helped Dean clean up after their whirlwind of a week. She only relented when Castiel promised that he'd be there for New Years and would buy her a sparkler (or three) when they went to the fireworks display. 

Around midday the car finally pulled away and Dean and Castiel were left standing on the front step waving until the car turned the corner out of the parking lot of the motel and Mary's face disappeared behind the wall. 

Dean sighed with a soft smile, "y'know, I normally hate that they have to leave, but this time it doesn't seem that bad," he snaked an arm around Castiel's waist and pulled their sides together then nuzzled Cas' cheek. 

Cas smiled and kissed his temple then dropped his cheek to the back of Dean's head, "don't you think it'll be quiet without them, though?" 

Dean grinned against Cas' neck, "that depends on what you call 'quiet'." 

Cas shuddered from the way Dean's voice dropped and vibrated against his skin, Dean moved to stand in front of him and moved him back inside the house by walking him backwards, closing the door against the cold with his foot and crowding Cas against the wall by the living room door. 

Dean leant forward and caught Castiel's lips in a gentle but insistent kiss, sighing against his skin as Cas eagerly kissed him back and brought his hands to rest on Dean's hips, pulling them flush against his own. 

Castiel arched his back from the wall to let Dean's arm slide around his waist and to push their bodies closer together, the two layers of clothing they wore the only thing that was separating their skin. 

Dean managed to gasp out "stairs," as Castiel started to mouth down his neck and suck and nibble gently on Dean's skin, Cas just groaned in reply and pressed himself harder against Dean's body. 

"Cas," Dean groaned slightly at the increased pressure of Cas sliding one thigh between his legs, "buddy we have time to christen the rest of this place, let's," his breath hitched as Castiel started to grind against his hip, "let's go upstairs." 

Dean didn't try too hard to move away from Cas, instead kissing him more deeply when Cas only nodded in response, his mouth open in a silent gasp as Dean ground back against Castiel's thigh and Cas could feel the erection growing in Dean's jeans, mirroring his own. 

They managed to stumble a few steps towards the stairs before Castiel snuck his hands up Dean's shirt and scratched his nails down Dean's chest, Dean groaned and pinned Cas' hands between their bodies, kissing him with force and making Castiel pant with the lack of oxygen when he finally pulled away. 

Dean grinned at Cas' blown pupils and ground their hips together in a slow circle, "Castiel, I am going to ravage you in the most amazing way, but for fucks sake, get upstairs and into my bed." 

Cas gulped slightly and nodded, Dean leant forward and kissed him gently before they moved away from the wall as one and stumbled up the stairs, their hands still roaming as much as they could as they went. 

Dean's shirt was off by the time they reached the top of the stairs, and he hurriedly pulled Cas up the last couple of steps to tug his off over his head as well, sending his hair into a more unruly state than it normally was. 

As soon as he was free from his shirt Cas pushed himself up against Dean, the warm skin of their chests combining and making it almost impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. 

Dean's hands found their way one into Castiel's hair and one around his waist, pulling the other man as close to him as he possibly could while Cas' arms wrapped around Dean's back and did the same thing, both clinging tightly as their lips slotted into place against each other again. 

Castiel felt Dean moving backwards and followed him eagerly, letting Dean lead him slowly towards his room and letting out an 'oomph' as Cas suddenly pushed him up against the door and slotted his leg into place between Dean's thighs again, beginning to grind against him with more determination than he'd used downstairs. 

Dean groaned and let his head drop back against the door as Castiel started to mouth his way down his neck again, lapping at the skin and blowing gently over it then biting in quick nips that barely left a mark but made Dean feel like Castiel was scarring his skin forever. 

He couldn't say it was a bad feeling. 

When he'd finished mapping Dean's neck, Castiel pulled back to take in the sight of Dean almost boneless against the door, Cas was pretty sure that if he stepped back Dean would just slide to the floor. 

As if sensing his thoughts Dean cracked open one eye, the green that normally shone from his irises almost eclipsed completely by the black of his pupil as he took a shaky breath and smiled, "don't you even think about stepping away from me," Cas smiled and pushed himself further against Dean, if that was even possible. 

"I'd think about it, but not actually do it," Cas held Dean's gaze and reached behind Dean to turned the door handle slowly, the two moving with the swing of the door till they were stood inside Dean's room and still staring at each other. 

Dean moved one hand to gently cup Castiel's face and pulled their lips together again, sighing at the contact as he started to move backwards towards the bed, when they got close enough Dean suddenly span them around and dropped Cas onto the bed, making Cas yelp and Dean laughed as he crawled on top of him. 

"Jumpy, aren't we?" 

Castiel growled and pulled Dean back to him by the back of his head, his other hand going to palm Dean over his jeans, making Dean gasp and groan so Cas could get his tongue into Dean's mouth. 

Dean pushed his crotch into Cas' hand, moaning again when Cas traced the shape of his erection through the jeans with two fingers, putting just enough pressure into the action so Dean cold feel it, but not enough to really do anything for him. 

Cas moaned as Dean bucked into his palm and started to undo Dean's jeans, Dean hissed a sigh of relief as the pressure from the confinement eased slightly, then quickly moved to pull them off, watching as Castiel removed his own and left his tented boxers on. 

Dean ran his eyes over Castiel's body and Cas squirmed slightly, Dean smiled and crawled up his body again, kissing his thighs, his stomach, then his chest and finally his lips. "You're gorgeous," he murmured against Cas' lips, Cas sighed and wrapped his arms around Dean's shoulders as Dean settled his weight on top of him. 

Castiel bent his knees slightly so Dean could slot between his legs and groaned as their cocks brushed through their boxers to meet, the two erections slotting together and sliding against each other with the help of the fabric stopping them from touching completely. 

The separation almost drove Cas mad. 

"Off," he managed to gasp between kisses, moving a hand to push them aside but Dean caught it and pinned it to the bed above his head, his eyes flashing in amusement as Castiel looked dumbly at the hand above his head as if he was trying to work out why it was there and not on Dean. 

"Patience, I've gotta make you moan loud enough to shake the walls yet," Dean murmured into Cas's ear, Cas groaned and arched his back so their chests touched again as Dean moved his other hand to be pinned under one of his above his head. 

"I could get out of this, you know," Cas managed to pant, Dean laughed. 

"Yeah, but do you want to?" 

Cas blinked a couple of times and shook his head, "no, not really." 

"Well then..." Dean bent his head and started to nibble along Castiel's jawline, Cas sighed and moved his head so Dean had more access to the sensitive skin. 

Dean moved from Cas' jaw and onto his neck, kissing and sucking at the salty skin there as Cas writhed slightly below him and gasped with the attention, letting out a soft moan as Dean bit down gently on the juncture between shoulder and neck and arching into Dean again. 

Castiel felt Dean's hand trailing down his side from his shoulder and tried to simultaneously arch into the touch and keep Dean's lips on his neck, Dean laughed softly and began to move down Cas' chest with his kisses, stopping to suck and bite just under Cas' collar bone and making him release another, slightly louder, moan. 

"That's it, that's what I want to hear," Dean whispered against Cas' skin, feeling the shudder that rippled unbidden along Castiel's body at his voice dropping a couple of octaves, he nibbled at the skin on Castiel's chest and Dean let his hand stray down Cas' toned stomach. 

Cas whined slightly as Dean skirted around the bulge in his boxers and caught his breath as Dean's hand went underneath him to squeeze at his ass while he bit down on one of his pecs. 

Dean licked harshly at Castiel's nipples, feeling the hard skin between his teeth as he bit gently and sucked on the skin around it, Cas started to do his best to push his crotch into Dean, trying to gain some friction in his erection but Dean stayed just maddeningly out of reach. 

Castiel let out a loud, surprised moan when Dean brushed the back of his hand suddenly along Cas' erection, Dean groaned into the skin on his chest and repeated the movement slowly, Cas' moan went silent half way through when Dean cupped his hand around Cas' cock and started to rub. 

Dean watched as Cas' eyes flew open and his head pushed back into the pillows, his back arched to push his erection against Dean's hand more firmly and Castiel moaned again, his hips stuttering as Dean squeezed him through his boxers. 

"Off?" Dean grinned when he'd let Cas catch his breath. 

"Off." Cas confirmed and quickly rid himself of his boxers as Dean did the same, moaning when Dean lay straight on top of him and aligned their cocks, easily moving his hips to brush them together with enough pressure to make Cas' body feel like it was on fire. 

Dean began to grind their hips together in firm but slow circles, Cas groaned and joined in the rhythm, his hands grasping onto Dean's ass in an attempt to push them closer together, Dean laughed softly and bent down to kiss Cas deeply, frustratingly keeping the same pace and pressure even though Cas tried to pull them closer together. 

"Damn it, Dean," Cas growled as he tipped his head back and arched his back to try and get more pressure again. 

"What, Cas?" Dean smiled and pushed suddenly into Cas' crotch, making the other man gasp and grab tighter at Dean's ass, "something you want?" 

"I want you to get on with it," Cas panted, forcing the words out between fast breaths as Dean kept up the added pressure. 

Dean laughed slightly and Cas glared at him, which made Dean laugh more and Cas moaned as it pushed their cocks closer together, then laughed himself at the reaction that he hadn't meant to cause by his glare. 

Cas went to make a comment about maybe needing to glare at Dean more when his mouth got caught in another deep kiss, Cas moaned into Dean's mouth and forgot what he was about to say when Dean bit on his lower lip. 

Dean felt Castiel's hips stutter against his when he caught his lip in his teeth, and felt Cas' moan rumble through his chest as he'd pressed their bodies close together again. With a groan Dean moved a hand between them to catch both their cocks and start to rub them up and down. 

Cas' head fell back with a loud moan as Dean squeezed them both together and one hand moved from Dean's ass to grasp the duvet next to his hip. 

Dean propped himself up on his spare arm and watched Cas' mouth work around silent moans as he tested out pressures and movements, repeating the ones that made Cas gasp randomly so Cas never knew what was coming next. 

The hand that Cas had fisted into the bed flew to Dean's shoulder as he spread his legs more so Dean could move closer to him, Dean took the invitation gladly and groaned at Cas wrapping one leg around his hips and pulling him closer. 

"Dean, I, please," Cas ground out as he rocked his hips into Dean's fist, Dean groaned and squeezed tighter, jerked his hand faster, moved his hips closer, and kissed Cas as if his life depended on it. 

Cas gave a loud moan and his hips stuttered, Dean squeezed again and bit at Cas' lower lip and Cas couldn't take it any more, before his moan had died out fully another made it's way out of his chest and he came over Dean's hand and his stomach, the feeling of Cas' warm cum on his skin made Dean's orgasm break and he let out his own moan against Cas' mouth, their cum mixing together as they both moved through the last shocks of pleasure. 

Dean dropped gently onto Cas's chest and moved his hand from their softening cocks, both of them breathing hard and holding the other gently, Dean registered dumbly that Cas was trailing his fingers up and down his back and smiled into Cas' neck as his head had dropped face first into the pillow next to Cas' head. 

Dean laughed gently and lifted his head, he felt weightless almost, and the smile on Castiel's face made him feel like he was actually floating. 

Cas moved the hand that was on Dean's ass to his cheek and kissed him, taking his time to explore Dean's lips and mouth with his tongue and Dean felt himself slowly sinking into sleep with how gentle Cas was being. 

"Stoppit," he managed to mumble, "sleepy. Need clean." 

"So articulate," Cas laughed against Dean's lips and kissed him again more firmly. 

"You're articulate," Dean huffed, Castiel just laughed more. 

Dean rolled off Cas' chest and Cas whined slightly and made grabby hands at Dean, Dean smiled and kissed him once more before moving to the bathroom and getting a damp facecloth, he cleaned himself on the walk back to the bedroom and found Cas sulking on his bed. 

Dean just laughed at the image of Cas pouting while covered in their cum and had to throw the cloth at Cas so he could clean himself. 

Cas threw the facecloth at Dean's head and hooted in victory when it hit Dean on the cheek. Dean choked on a laugh in shock and Cas took up the laughter for him at the disgusted and surprised look on Dean's face. 

"Really, you were covered in it a minute ago, now you're grossed out?" 

"But this is my FACE, Cas, People look at this bit of me." 

"I dunno, I'm looking at all of you right now," Cas ran his eyes up and down Dean's body with a knowing grin, Dean squirmed and blushed then threw the facecloth into a wash basket and used a shirt to wipe his face in case anything had come off the cloth. 

He bounced the bed suddenly by jumping onto it, making Cas yelp and flail about a bit before Dean pinned him down again, grinning as Cas glared at him, the softness in his eyes giving away that he didn't really mind. 

"Hi," Dean gave Cas a smile that Cas had learned was reserved only for him, it was soft but full of meaning, kind but specifically so, it made Cas' heart skip a beat. 

"Hello, Dean," Cas breathed, his own smile unknowingly mirroring the one Dean had given him. 

Dean's face seemed to shine with happiness as he moved to kiss Cas, who met him in the middle, and flopped down beside him, pulling Cas onto his side without breaking the kiss. He managed to kick the cover over the two of them and pulled Cas close to him so their chests were touching and their legs were tangled together. 

"We should do that again." 

Dean laughed, "yeah, Cas, yeah I think we should." 

Cas smiled against Dean's chest and wrapped an arm around Dean's waist, "this is nice for now though." 

"Yeah," Dean's voice was soft, and Castiel could hear the smile in it, this is really nice," Cas felt Dean's smile as he placed a gentle kiss on the top of his head. 

Even though Sam, Jess and Mary had left, the house suddenly felt a lot more full now the two of them were cuddled under the soft duvet.


End file.
